Mauerfall.

In the summer of 1989 a survey-taker asked me when I thought the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall would come down. I said something like 40-50 years. Of course, I was a little out.

The signs that it was about to come crashing down were there, but I think we were all concerned with Madchester and the suchlike. Anything except the Soviet Bloc was about to collapse.

I remember watching it on TV, eyes wide open with shock. But only now, hearing people who had lived in the east, what they thought of it. On reflection, I think this is the most important event in my lifetime, causing so many changes in the way the defence of our country and it's actual raison d'etre.

Lets hope that we never see things like the Iron Curtain and the Cold War again, when both sides were poised to hurl multi-warhead nuclear weapons at each other.