Nelson Mandela - Twenty Seven Years In Captivity

Sunday 11 February 1990 saw one of the defining moments for those of us who first discovered activism in the grim years of the eighties - the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

I'll be curious to see whether Tory leader David Cameron sends a message of congratulation today - as the Independent reported last year, in 1989 he accepted an all-expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa, funded by a firm that lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on the racist regime. That was back when the Conservative Party described the ANC as a terrorist organisation - and Speaker of the Commons John Bercow was Chair of the Federation of Conservative Students and would regularly sell Hang Mandela t-shirts and posters.

There is, of course, only one choice of music to celebrate today's twentieth anniversary of that day: with The Special AKA's classic top-ten hit from 1984, "Free Nelson Mandela" - still one of the best protest songs of modern times.

YouTube has, for some reason, disabled embedding of the video since this morning, but you can find it here.