When I was a union organizer in my workplace in London a colleague came up to my desk with a petition and said something about getting things moving. Reflexively, I signed it (I knew him to be a smart, progressive guy, and if this thing was of concern to him, then I wanted to lend my support), only to look up and see that he had walked off without waiting to collect it. Before chasing him down the corridor, I took the trouble to read what I had put my name to. It was a demand that the union stop dragging its feet on a particular issue and mount an effective challenge to management. In other words, it was not for me to sign but to receive. I had in effect signed a petition against myself.

The road from Roanoke to Washington DC snakes north-east through the Shenandoah Valley with the Blue Ridge mountains flanking you on either side. Ordinarily you can make the 250 miles from rural south-west Virginia to the nation's capital in four hours, without much fuss.

Since Barack Obama first announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, almost two years ago, we have witnessed a series of "historic moments" - each more portentous than the last. Tomorrow, his inauguration as the 44th president of the US marks the curtain call on a symbolic storyline in varying degrees dramatic, implausible and impressive.

When author and screenwriter Ronan Bennett was wrongfully imprisoned by the British in the infamous Long Kesh in Northern Ireland in the early ’70s, a number of books made the rounds among the Irish Republican prisoners. There was Arthur Koestler’s

On New Year's Day Atif Irfan boarded an AirTran flight at Reagan National Airport in Washington with seven members of his family. Edging his way down the aisle, he wondered out loud to his wife whether the back of the plane was the best place to be. As they took their seats, his sister-in-law said she thought it was the safest part, rather than being close to the engine or wings "in case something happened".