Yesterday I had an interesting time attending a lunch hosted by my good friend Darrell on behalf of YFC. A while ago Jonathan Aitken had expressed a desire to help YFC with fundraising and offered to speak at a fundraising lunch or breakfast for us. Darrell organised the whole event, held at the Royal Overseas League, and invited some friends and colleagues to listen to Jonathan Aitken and then Roy. The event’s aim was to raise some seed funding for our Reflex project running in Young Offender Institutes.

Being a life long member of the Labour Party it was strange being near to someone whose mis-fortune I had taken some delight in at the time. To his credit he was very open and honest, and he is quite a reformed character.

He shared shocking statistics coming from prison communities. I have not checked these but he quoted the average age of a prisoner to be 23, he quoted that only one third of the prison population is literate.

People at the lunch seemed genuinely interested and touched and there seemed to be a desire to stand with us, so I hope this translates itself into some badly needed funds.

Thanks Darrell, Jonathan and all those other people there – it was very kind of you to give up your time.