Five Years Ago tonight Jeremy Corbyn, then still just about Labour leader, gave the Bernie Grant Memorial lecture at the Bernie Grant Centre in central Tottenham.
Roger McKenzie was the compere, Linton Kwesi Johnson read a poem and the local MP David Lammy (!) also spoke. This was before he discovered that he was not friendly with Jeremy Corbyn of course.
The event was remarkable for another reason. It was held as COVID spread in London. I had assumed it would be called off (as the Spurs game that weekend had been). In fact it went ahead and it was of course packed.
Jeremy Corbyn began his speech by warning about COVID and demonstrating the then idea of elbow bumps rather than handshakes. It wasn’t of course an effective strategy but he demonstrated far more awareness and concern than his then opposite number Prime Minister Boris Johnson
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