One of life's oddities: this evening, I got to interview Ken Livingstone.

OK, backtrack. So there I was a couple of weeks ago in Special Subject class when the girl opposite me (hey, Emma!) leaned forward over the table and asked if I'd volunteered on Ken's last election campaign. Which came rather out of the blue for me, but of course Emma had chatted a while ago to my former DoS, who'd gossiped what she knew about the other people in the class. And of course, my former DoS knew I'd volunteered on Ken's campaign because I, too, like to chat. And Emma's an editor of the student newspaper Varsity, and was wondering if I'd fancy doing a quick interview with Ken when he came to speak to the Union Society...?

Well, naturally I would, thank you! And it's all the easier because my contact at the Union turns out to be a guy (hey, James!) who sat next to me at the Peterhouse Politics Society dinner last year. (We chatted about Ken.) And oh, now Ken's here and I'm able to give him a copy of the interview from the last time I did this - a decade ago. (Don't we all look younger in the photo!) I was ten, and yet here I am now asking him basically the exact same question about running for the mayoralty with or without the Labour party.

The moral: life is strange, fun and ever so slightly cyclical. And you make it better by idle chatter

Anyway - since it is Varsity's interview, I shall refrain from blogging the content until I can link to the online version. (Don't expect great revelations, obviously. He's an old pro at this. But hopefully it should still be a good read...)