Yesterday, the Gibraltar Society of Accountants (GSA) hosted their annual Gala Dinner at the Sunborn.

The dinner was well attended with over 200 people from the sector.  The annual dinner was attended by the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, and Albert Isola, Minister for Digital and Financial Services.  The Chief Minister addressed those present, with a speech covering various matters currently of interest in Gibraltar.

The Society’s guest speaker for the evening was John Sergeant.  John was Chief Political Correspondent at the BBC and the Political Editor of ITN. He started his career in journalism as a correspondent for the Liverpool Echo before joining the BBC as a radio reporter in 1970, later joining its international desk. John's assignments included covering events in Vietnam, Rhodesia, Northern Ireland, Lebanon and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He was also senior correspondent in Dublin, Paris and Washington. John was the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent until 2000, when he joined ITN as Political Editor.

John competed in Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, finally deciding to leave the show after 10 weeks, with the public having constantly voted to keep him on the show despite regularly finishing bottom of the judges’ scoreboard. He has also appeared on television programmes such as Have I got New for You and Room 101. John gripped the audience with tales of his time on Strictly Come Dancing and some of the key moments in politics with key politicians such as Margaret Thatcher. There was also a lively Q&A session after the speech.