Booklets and bookmarks sold well, as did brollies. I picked up several in a charity shop for 99p each and sold the lot for £3 each (my one nod to capitalism).

The rally is an extraordinary event, very much Old Labour, with an intelligent, committed audience. The media impression of something drab and unelectable is dispelled by the passion of the speeches.

An MP described homelessness in his constituency, because there are no longer any council houses there.

We heard how the government plans to spend billions on nuclear submarines, when people are being denied cancer treatment as too expensive.

The establishment seemed as implacably against the people as it was in Paine’s day.

I went in 18th Century costume and was invited up on the stage to speak. The last performer was Dick Gaughan, a kind of Scottish Billy Bragg, who sang a song about Paine and also one about a lawyer who was transported for distributing Rights of Man.

The singer ended with a rousing version of the Internationale, which had everyone on their feet.

I told the audience about the events commemorating Paine’s bi-centenary next year.

He was the author of the three best-selling works of the 18th Century; was heavily involved in both the American and French Revolutions; coined the term ‘United States of America’; and but for him that country would still be governed by Elizabeth II, slavery might still be practised, women might not have equal rights; over here we would not have the Welfare State, benefits, education funding, pensions.

In his life he was burned in effigy, charged with seditious libel and narrowly missed the guillotine.

Tony Benn has said that the establishment still hates Paine because he still represents a direct threat to its power and influence – extraordinary for a man who died 200 years ago.

My tirade went down well and seemed to end the day nicely.

n Basil Abbott is manager of Diss Museum.