When I was a youngster, I was brought up in a very political background on an estate in north London.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I came into politics because of my opposition to what a Tory Government was doing to the community I grew up in.
My return to London introduced me to a wider range of society.
My story is the story of many postwar British families. Upward mobility. A council house and then new affluence.
I'm a person who's always been interested in politics and thought it was a very noble occupation.
Living in England was wonderfully civil and easy-going.
My neighborhood in South London was very Dickensian.
Although I'm not from London originally: I moved down here when I was 16, so it's played a part in my life. It's where I've lived for all that time.
I was born in a small suburb of Ilford in a rather nasty housing estate that my mother despised. She had grown up in the country, so when the war came and I was evacuated to Wales she thought I was much better off there.
I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.
I grew up in northwest London on a council estate. My parents are Irish immigrants who came over here when they were very young and worked in menial jobs all their lives, and I'm one of many siblings.