Billy Hayes

"He saw also that a large number lived lives of semi-starvation from the cradle to the grave, while a yet smaller but still very great number actually died of hunger.

"Seeing all this, he thought that it was wrong, that the system, which had produced such results, was rotten and should be altered. And he sought out and eagerly read the writings of those who thought they knew how it might be done.

"It was because he was in the habit of speaking of these subjects that his fellow workmen came to the conclusion that there was probably something wrong with his mind."

It was a great school, as I recall. It was also the location of my first introduction to politics.

Mr Semple, our teacher, would roar about most things to us ten year olds, and when you had done something bad you would be whacked with a ruler on the back of your hand or cane on your backside.

The fact that it was permissible in those supposedly enlightened times for grown men and women to hit children for misbehaviour seems incredible now.