One of the things that I noticed with my own eyes was Nelson Mandela ability to engage with kings and queens and heads of state on the one hand, and his ability to engage with ordinary people, equally comfortably.

Nelson Mandela also spoke about how, as a human being, he's made mistakes.

The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once in a generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.

I was 15 years old when I first heard the name Mandela, or Madiba, as he is fondly known in Africa. In apartheid South Africa he was public enemy number one. Shrouded in secrecy, myth and rumour, the media called him 'The Black Pimpernel'.

Nelson Mandela once said "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me; I'm not going to protest."

The reality is today most of our political leaders want to be treated as gods and semi-gods, from the security details to the fuss around them and so on.

I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.