The trouble with the Labour Party leadership and the trade union leadership they're quite willing to applaud millions on the streets of the Philippines or in Eastern Europe without understanding the need to also produce millions of people on the streets of Britain.

The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God in his ultimate triumph and in his goodness and love which nothing can shake.

Sometimes I even now feel like a stranger in my country. But I knew there would be problems because I had seen the world as a skater. And now? A lot of people in eastern Germany have lost jobs rents went up food costs went up unemployment went to 20 percent. Freedom is good but it is not easy.

Well we lost a lot of our independence already. We are dependent on China for credit. We are dependent on Middle Eastern countries for energy supplies. And many Americans are dependent on the government for their income health care education of their children food stamps.

Overcoming the Cold War required courage from the people of Central and Eastern Europe and what was then the German Democratic Republic but it also required the steadfastness of Western partner over many decades when many had long lost hope of integration of the two Germanys and Europe.

I know a lot of Eastern Europeans and because of what they have been through and what they have seen they have an attitude where they are not easily fooled.

I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s and into my 30s I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.

Here is the amazing thing about Easter the Resurrection Sunday for Christians is this that Christ in the dying moments on the cross gives us the greatest illustration of forgiveness possible.