The quiet man roars

I am in the Hilton at a dinner hosted by the Countryside Alliance. There is someone I know on almost every table in the restaurant.

Everyone is talking about the speech Iain gave tonight and absolutely everyone is talking about how the tears flooded their eyes and the hairs on the back of their neck rose.

There is a lady on my table who is in tears now—she has said that her hands are still hurting from clapping and the only reason people sat down was because Iain began to look embarrassed by the length of his standing ovation.

The gist of what made everyone cry was the very typical Iain sentiment:  if you love your country you have to love all of the people in your country.

There are clever people in politics. There are sharp, devious, duplicitous selfish people in politics. But every now and then you meet someone who is kind and good and true and selfless, Iain is one of those, and everyone in the Winter Gardens today suddenly realised that, and a quiet man roared.