One of the few true Socialists -
the antithesis of that grubby money grabbing Blair.
RIP Tony Benn
I have great respect for the man but his ideals were for the most part just that. He was possibly the least hypocritical politician of them all. But his refusal to change would have meant Labour staying in the wilderness for years. However his political commentary was nearly always first class.
RIP
Without Tony Benn Concorde would never have been realised.
RIP
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26575843
Five things Tony Benn gave us.
Good link that will give some younger posters a taste of the vibrancy of politics before year zero Thatcherism.
A politician of empathy, intelligence and conviction. His action of renouncing his baronetcy to speak in the commons in unimaginable in the context of the pocket-stuffing shitbags who fill the commons today.
R.I.P.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 14th March 2014, 7:12 AM GMTthe antithesis of that grubby money grabbing Blair.
This x 10000000%
Quote: lofthouse @ 14th March 2014, 5:22 PM GMTThis x 10000000%
I miss him he was a great and wise commentator.
But he was a disaster as a politician.
He and Foot ran an unelectable Labour party for years, whilst Thatcher sold off the national industries unopposed.
Then he was the head of a stop the war movement, so ridiculous it couldn't get taken seriously with a million person march.
What ever one says about, venal, oily Tony Blair he actually got into office and undid some of the damage Thatcher did.
Ben, well he'd rather lose an election with dignity then oppose the conservatives with ferocity.
Quote: sootyj @ 14th March 2014, 6:53 PM GMTI miss him he was a great and wise commentator.
But he was a disaster as a politician.
He and Foot ran an unelectable Labour party for years, whilst Thatcher sold off the national industries unopposed.
Then he was the head of a stop the war movement, so ridiculous it couldn't get taken seriously with a million person march.
What ever one says about, venal, oily Tony Blair he actually got into office and undid some of the damage Thatcher did.
Ben, well he'd rather lose an election with dignity then oppose the conservatives with ferocity.
Surely the difference is Blair wanted power at all costs even if it meant tearing up every policy the party stood far for a hundred years
Benn said THIS is what I believe is right , THIS is what I want - if the majority of the public doesn't agree, then so be it , but I won't simply abandon everything I am passionate about so that you will vote for me
But the comparison is false anyway
Benn was a socialist through and through
Blair is barely even centre-left ffs
Who do you admire most? A man who sticks to his principles and beliefs no matter what
Or a man who say and do anything for the sole aim of getting himself in number 10
Oh and btw , Tony Benn goes to his grave without the blood of THOUSANDS of innocent people dripping from his hands
I admire a man who gets results.
If Ben wanted to be a man of principle there are lepers to wash, hair shirts to wear and ivory towers to contemplate your navel in.
Bevin built the welfare state and the NHS by making a 1000 compromises and stuffing pockets with gold.
A politician with out principles is as bad as one who won't compromise them for the greater good.
Yes but the result is that people detest the 'Nu-Labour' legacy
And the party is now a total shambles
Being in opposition at the moment should be ludicrously easy
Yet the silence is deafening
Nobody knows what the fck the party stands for anymore - mainly because it no longer stands for anything
Quote: lofthouse @ 14th March 2014, 8:59 PM GMTSurely the difference is Blair wanted power at all costs even if it meant tearing up every policy the party stood far for a hundred years
but I won't simply abandon everything I am passionate about so that you will vote for me
lofthouse not a fan of Tsarist monarchies then. No matter how you to try to sway him with tax cuts or relaxation of planning permission, he's going to stick to the principles of long dead 19th century Russian intellectuals.
sooty is right, Benn, Foot, Kinnock - they were piss flavoured poison to the electorate, who unlike the political ideologists had actually moved on because they lived in the real world. Labour had to move to the centre ground because society had moved to the centre ground.
And despite the attempts of crusty old lefty has beens who want to relive the glory days of their wide eyed donkey jacketed youth, all efforts to revive far left parties have failed spectacularly. They're 8 track cassettes in an MP3 world.
Tony Benn was a man of his time and a fantastic politician, but he became an irrelevant political dinosaur who only appealed to nostalgic CND loving 50 year olds.
Ben was proposing nuclear disarmament and closing US airbases, when the USSR was having it's largest expansion of it's armies in it's history, invading Afghanistan and that was a proper invasion, crushing dissent in Poland etc, all this whilst NATO was having a bit of a wobble.
So he was ignored and Thatcher got to do what she liked.
Which seemed to be giving Regan all the bases he wanted, permission to trundle cruise missiles where he liked and launch when he felt like it. Whilst British troops beat up protestors.
I'd have preferred a Labour party better able to reach a happy compromise.
Due to my age, I had absolutely no idea who Tony Benn was until he was interviewed by Ali G. It was perhaps one of the best Ali G interviews and one that Benn was able to laugh about afterwards.