There will be many words written about Nelson Mandela over the coming days and weeks…indeed in the years to come.

There is nothing I can write that will add to what we know, or feel, about the man who showed us all how to live, how to govern, how to be a human being.

I met him, when I was a young Labour councillor and he received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh. He held my hand. I cried a little.

And I cried a little tonight, on hearing that his life had come to a quiet close.

If only we all had his strength, his dignity, his humility, and most of all his wisdom. The world would be a far, far better place.