The First Time I Feel Political When I Oppose Margaret Thatcher

"I saw talented, compassionate, caring people that I loved enormously have their lives thrown away," he says. "It was a microcosm of having your steelworks closed down or having a pit closed down." He joined the Labour Party at age 16; his family had always been Labour but no one was a member. But in this case, it's not that you changed your mind, but it closed down.