Lord Avebury presented with the Blomfield Award.

This afternoon I went down to London to the Bahá’í Centre in Rutland Gate to attend a reception to honour Lord Avebury for his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights and at which he was presented with the Blomfield Award. The Blomfield Award is given in memory of Lady Blomfield, a philanthropist and social reformer in the first half of the 20th century, who campaigned for the vote for women and was a founder member of Save the Children. She was an early member of the British Bahá’í community.
The Bahá’í Centre is in a rather fine house hidden away in a difficult to access backwater of Knightsbridge. When I arrived a number of guests were already there and chatting amiably over elegant glasses of red and white grape juice (the Bahá’ís are teetotallers). Then Eric and Lindsey, Lord and Lady Avebury, arrived with their son, John William, and his girlfriend, Verity, and we were soon called to order and the presentation got under way. Ann Clwyd MP arrived when Eric was already well into his acceptance speech. She is a colleague of Eric's on the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group and has succeeded him as Chair.

I can't possibly reproduce all the wonderful things that were said nor especially the atmosphere but it was very inspiring and hearing of the campaigns that Lord Avebury has waged over the years made the little troubles that most of us have seem so shamefully insignificant. I wished there could have been some of my followers there to have heard said over and over again how tirelessly, consistently and tenaciously Eric has worked over the years. That and his stated determination to carry on as long as possible is such a tremendous example and one that I want everyone to hear.

I had a good time talking to Jeremy, a great friend of Eric's, who in the columns of the Daily Express many years ago accurately predicted, alone amongst journalists at the time, that Eric would win Orpington. We exchanged stories of the Beatles and all sorts of things. He was a bit surprised when I produced a camera from under my robes but when you've got a blog to keep up! And I had a good conversation with Barney Leith about our difficulties with Buddhists who want to pick and choose which precepts to keep. We were talking especially about alcohol and Barney said of the Bahá’ís that abstaining from alcohol is one of the things that you do as a Bahá’í and which makes you a Bahá’í and of course it ought to be one of the things you do as a Buddhist.
Afterwards we dropped JW off at the Tube, Lindsey at a bus stop and Eric at the House of Lords and then we beat it back up the M40 to Warwickshire.