First Job Mucking out my Dad’s pigs on a Saturday morning for 10p an hour
First Real Job Researcher to Patrick Thompson MP 1985-7
First Role in Politics Chairman of UEA Conservatives in 1981
First Car An orange Ford Cortina Mk III, lovingly nicknamed the Big Jaffa. I wrote it off on my 20th birthday.
First Record Long haired Lover from Liverpool by Jimmy Osmond. The shame lives with me still.
First Football Match Cambridge Utd v Westham in a 1972 testimonial at the Abbey Stadium
First Concert Darts at a free concert in Harlow in 1977
First Country Visited France, on a day trip to Boulogne at the age of 7
First TV Appearance Multi Coloured Swap Shop in 1978
First Political Speech April 1982 during a debate on the Falklands at my university. It all started there…
First Girlfriend/Boyfriend Rachel Elliott at Ashdon County Primary School. She had a runny nose.
First Encounter with a Famous Person Cyril Fletcher from That’s Life at a pantomime in the Arts Theatre Cambridge ca 1973
First Brush With Death Hitting a Transit Van head on at 50 mph in the days before seatbelts. The long bonnet of my Cortina Mk III saved me - and my two sisters.
First House/Flat Owned 70 Howard Road, Walthamstow, in July 1988 - probably the worst time ever to buy a flat.
First Film Seen at a Cinema Sound of Music at Saffron Walden Cinema, which is sadly no longer there.
First Time on the Radio On the Radio One Breakfast Show with Mike Read in 1981 on Beat the Jock. I didn’t.
First Politician I Met Shirley Williams who spoke at my school in 1977
First Book I Remember Reading The Secret of Spiggy Holes by Enid Blyton
First Visit to the London Palladium 1978, to see the reunion of Cliff & the Shadows!
First Election 1985 Norfolk County Council election, Catton Grove Ward. My finals were the next day. Had to be postponed after I suffered from shock having knocked a motorcyclist off his bike on polling day and breaking his leg. He was a Labour voter…
