TIME TO GO? NOT BY A LONG SHOT...

I met a lady today whose mother travelled up to Manchester last month, marched against the war and occupation in Iraq, the UK's bullish support of Israel's attack on Lebanon, its policies towards asylums, its privatisations etc, and told Tony Blair it was time for him to go. Nothing particularly remarkable about that, you might think, except that this lady is 101 years old.

In fact, her birthday was last week. She had told her daughter that, given she was now over 100, perhaps she might stop demonstrating and put her feet up. I think she enjoyed her week of putting her feet up, but after yesterday's nuke test in Pyongyang, and the US's aggressive response to it, she has been ringing round her friends, relatives and fellow activists to see if there is anything she can do to help the anti-war cause.

I don't do "Person of the Week" on Homo Ludens, but for one week only this lady is Person of the Week. In fact, today reminded me exactly why I like working with older people - if I ever live to 101 and have a fraction of this lady's tenacity and (dare I say it) balls, I think I'll be pretty happy.