It is 20 years to the day since the Berlin Wall fell and East Germans were allowed to leave the country that was their prison.

I was only 12 when it happened and I didn’t really understand what was happening but the constant news coverage and sight of people dismantling the wall by hand as soldiers stood by and watched them meant that I didn’t need to understand the rise and fall of communism, the partition of Germany and the cold war.  I understood that history was being made and that a lot of people were suddenly very happy and bewildered.

It’s ironic that the 20th anniversary of the end of communism in Europe was marked by the signing, in the former communist republic of Czechoslovakia,  of a treaty establishing a new socialist empire in Europe and by the call for a communist redistribution of the wealth of banks by our very own marxist Prime Minister.

The people of Europe have short memories, it seems.