Ruth Kelly is the only member of the current cabinet who I have met – I organised a speech for her in Brussels back in March 2002, an evening that is engraved vivdly in my memory because as I was driving home afterwards my current boss phoned me to offer me my current job. I thought then that she was very intelligent and very competent. It’s a bit surprising that we had never encountered each other in student politics – whereas Stephen Twigg, a year older than her and the same age as me, was ubiquitous at that time, and Lorna Fitzsimons was also emerging on the radar screen. She obviously spent her energy more sensibly. Anyway it’s very annoying interesting to see someone a year younger than me and also from an Ulster Catholic background achieving high office…