Tony Benn is dead
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Arginald Valleywater
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Tony Benn is dead
I shall shed no tears for a political dinosaur who would have jumped into bed with Russia and imposed their vile socialist totalitarian lifestyles on all of us.
Re: Tony Benn is dead
When he first started politics he was seen as a reformer and only later grew into the ultra left character he became.
you had to respect the guy for sticking to his principles and genuinely believing in what he was doing.
It is also a timely reminder of what politics has became as we continue to loose our great parliamentarians.
you had to respect the guy for sticking to his principles and genuinely believing in what he was doing.
It is also a timely reminder of what politics has became as we continue to loose our great parliamentarians.
Re: Tony Benn is dead
When he was Postmaster-General, he wanted to take the Queen's head off our stamps. She would have none of it...
Re: Tony Benn is dead
Which makes you wonder why her head is it still on stamps now although the postal service is privatised.
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max_tranmere
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Re: Tony Benn is dead
It's a shame that he has passed, just like it is when anyone passes, but I question the impact he had and also I've wondered for many years why he was so famous. It is more to do with his family associations in politics than anything he achieved, he had a number of relatives who were politicians and apparently as a kid he met and had tea with a number of ex and current Prime Ministers, ministers, MP's and so on. Because he was from a political family he went into the family business and became a politician himself. This is not hard to organise if your relatives are connected to senior people in a political party, they simply put you forward for a safe seat.
I remember hearing Tony Benn say once that he sadly lost a brother in the war. The family's hereditary title was then due to go to him as his elder brother was no longer around and this apparently prevented Tony from becoming an MP. He lobbied for the law to be changed, it was, and according to the news today he announced his desire to stand for parliament just 22 minutes after the law was changed. He was a minister in the 1970's and that is about all he achieved in politics, but because he thought himself deserving of so much more and because he had a large ego he demanded to be viewed as a political big-hitter and somehow convinced editors on TV programmes to have him on their shows almost weekly for the next 30 years.
He wanted to become Prime Minster, to do that he obviously had to become party leader first. He tried to take the leadership from Neil Kinnock in the 1980's, he failed and never really got anywhere in politics in the 80's, 90's or 2000's - but he was never off our TV screens forevermore. When Blair won in 1997 the party arranged for his son Hilary Benn to become an MP and minister - easily done, just put the person forward for a safe seat as I said above. I heard Tony Benn's granddaughter is a Labour counsellor now too.
As I said it is sad he died, just like it is when anyone dies, but I have always been puzzled as to why we have heard so much of him since the 1970's. He largely failed in his political career, never reaching the heights he wanted to but demanding to be viewed by the media and the nation as being someone who HAD reached those heights. I saw on the news today that Harold Wilson, who Benn served under in the 1970's, once described him as someone who "immatured with age". RIP Tony, I suppose one legacy you do leave is your diaries which are something like 20 million words in total. They are at least a thorough record of British politics over the last 50 or 60 years.
I remember hearing Tony Benn say once that he sadly lost a brother in the war. The family's hereditary title was then due to go to him as his elder brother was no longer around and this apparently prevented Tony from becoming an MP. He lobbied for the law to be changed, it was, and according to the news today he announced his desire to stand for parliament just 22 minutes after the law was changed. He was a minister in the 1970's and that is about all he achieved in politics, but because he thought himself deserving of so much more and because he had a large ego he demanded to be viewed as a political big-hitter and somehow convinced editors on TV programmes to have him on their shows almost weekly for the next 30 years.
He wanted to become Prime Minster, to do that he obviously had to become party leader first. He tried to take the leadership from Neil Kinnock in the 1980's, he failed and never really got anywhere in politics in the 80's, 90's or 2000's - but he was never off our TV screens forevermore. When Blair won in 1997 the party arranged for his son Hilary Benn to become an MP and minister - easily done, just put the person forward for a safe seat as I said above. I heard Tony Benn's granddaughter is a Labour counsellor now too.
As I said it is sad he died, just like it is when anyone dies, but I have always been puzzled as to why we have heard so much of him since the 1970's. He largely failed in his political career, never reaching the heights he wanted to but demanding to be viewed by the media and the nation as being someone who HAD reached those heights. I saw on the news today that Harold Wilson, who Benn served under in the 1970's, once described him as someone who "immatured with age". RIP Tony, I suppose one legacy you do leave is your diaries which are something like 20 million words in total. They are at least a thorough record of British politics over the last 50 or 60 years.
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David Johnson
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Max
"He was a minister in the 1970's and that is about all he achieved in politics, but because he thought himself deserving of so much more and because he had a large ego he demanded to be viewed as a political big-hitter and somehow convinced editors on TV programmes to have him on their shows almost weekly for the next 30 years."
This is a Maxism of the first order. A mixture of bollocks and cod psychoanalysis. Well done!
An MP for 50 years, in power for decades, a first rate political diarist, at the heart of the Labour Party for decades, a brilliant speaker who said what he believed and believed what he said.
Of course he was on loads of political programmes. Why shouldn't he given his track record? He could even pull large audiences at the Glastonbury Festival!
Who do you think should be on political programmes looking for a perspective of longer than a few years? Jason and Kylie?
Had the privilege of hearing him speak a couple of times. Mesmerising.
A very sad loss to left wing politics.
This is a Maxism of the first order. A mixture of bollocks and cod psychoanalysis. Well done!
An MP for 50 years, in power for decades, a first rate political diarist, at the heart of the Labour Party for decades, a brilliant speaker who said what he believed and believed what he said.
Of course he was on loads of political programmes. Why shouldn't he given his track record? He could even pull large audiences at the Glastonbury Festival!
Who do you think should be on political programmes looking for a perspective of longer than a few years? Jason and Kylie?
Had the privilege of hearing him speak a couple of times. Mesmerising.
A very sad loss to left wing politics.
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David Johnson
- Posts: 7844
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Argie
" shall shed no tears for a political dinosaur who would have jumped into bed with Russia and imposed their vile socialist totalitarian lifestyles on all of us."
Well, one of your heroes Nigel Farage seems to have liked him loads. Benn was against joining the EU for a start.
"UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: ?I found Tony Benn personally engaging and highly entertaining.
?Tony was also one of the few people I have ever known who totally ignored the ban on smoking in public places. He used to tell me that given that he was in his eighties he didn?t think anyone would make a fuss.
?Naturally we disagreed about many things. But on the fundamental question of democracy and a nation?s right to self-government we were completely at one. Britain has lost a giant political figure and my thoughts today are with his family.?
Well, one of your heroes Nigel Farage seems to have liked him loads. Benn was against joining the EU for a start.
"UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: ?I found Tony Benn personally engaging and highly entertaining.
?Tony was also one of the few people I have ever known who totally ignored the ban on smoking in public places. He used to tell me that given that he was in his eighties he didn?t think anyone would make a fuss.
?Naturally we disagreed about many things. But on the fundamental question of democracy and a nation?s right to self-government we were completely at one. Britain has lost a giant political figure and my thoughts today are with his family.?
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Milk Tray Man
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David J
David Johnson wrote:
> A very sad loss to left wing politics.
A sad loss to politics full stop. I didn't agree with everything he said and I'm a long way from left wing on a lot of issues but if anyone was a conviction politician it was Tony Benn, he was a far cry from the third-rate cunts we're lumbered with now, most of whom are basically just cynical, self-serving careerists (across all the parties, not just Labour).
We badly need more like him but I fear we will not see his like again.
> A very sad loss to left wing politics.
A sad loss to politics full stop. I didn't agree with everything he said and I'm a long way from left wing on a lot of issues but if anyone was a conviction politician it was Tony Benn, he was a far cry from the third-rate cunts we're lumbered with now, most of whom are basically just cynical, self-serving careerists (across all the parties, not just Labour).
We badly need more like him but I fear we will not see his like again.
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max_tranmere
- Posts: 4734
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
David
"A mixture of bollocks and cod psychoanalysis. Well done!"
Not quite sure what 'cod psychoanalysis' is David. Analysing fish perhaps?
"An MP for 50 years"
It's not very hard to be an MP for 50 years if the party want you to be. You can put people forward for safe seats where they just will get elected. This is how his son Hilary Benn also got into the House of Commons, how Nick Hurd the son of Douglas Hurd did aswell (I believe he is the FOURTH Hurd in a line to sit in the House and probably not the last), Boris Johnson's brother, George Osbourne (wasn't his father-in-law a foreign office minister years ago?), and so on. Nepotism is rife in politics. I haven't looked it up but Tony Benn was an MP for at least two different areas, he lost his seat (in Bristol, if memory serves me correctly) due to boundary changes and they put him forward for another seat elsewhere. He won that one and therefore continued as an MP.
"in power for decades"
Really? In power for a short period at the end of the 1960's and for a time in the 1970s. That was when he was a minister, an MP doesn't have 'power' in that they're not in the Government. Briefly being a minister does not mean he was 'in power for decades'.
"a first rate political diarist, at the heart of the Labour Party for decades, a brilliant speaker who said what he believed and believed what he said."
Doesn't make him a political big-hitter does it? There are many ex-ministers who were documenters of political life, none of them ended up on the telly for the rest of their lives - in fact in the media more often, and for longer, than just about ANYONE like Benn was. No ex Prime Minister was as prolific as Tony Benn was for the rest of their life.
"Of course he was on loads of political programmes. Why shouldn't he given his track record? He could even pull large audiences at the Glastonbury Festival!"
Not quite sure what 'track record' he had. Briefly in government, as were hundreds of other people over the decades, you never saw them on TV like Benn was. As I said in my OP his former boss Harold Wilson described him as a man who "immatured with age".
"Who do you think should be on political programmes looking for a perspective of longer than a few years? Jason and Kylie?"
Erm, Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. All ex-PM's from the last 45 years, most were senior ministers for years prior to becoming PM aswell (all except Tony Blair). They got to the top, unlike Tony Benn who wanted to but never did. You saw/see them on TV occasionally. They are/were certainly political big-hitters as they became the leaders of the nation.
I must say David your post was not one of your best!
Not quite sure what 'cod psychoanalysis' is David. Analysing fish perhaps?
"An MP for 50 years"
It's not very hard to be an MP for 50 years if the party want you to be. You can put people forward for safe seats where they just will get elected. This is how his son Hilary Benn also got into the House of Commons, how Nick Hurd the son of Douglas Hurd did aswell (I believe he is the FOURTH Hurd in a line to sit in the House and probably not the last), Boris Johnson's brother, George Osbourne (wasn't his father-in-law a foreign office minister years ago?), and so on. Nepotism is rife in politics. I haven't looked it up but Tony Benn was an MP for at least two different areas, he lost his seat (in Bristol, if memory serves me correctly) due to boundary changes and they put him forward for another seat elsewhere. He won that one and therefore continued as an MP.
"in power for decades"
Really? In power for a short period at the end of the 1960's and for a time in the 1970s. That was when he was a minister, an MP doesn't have 'power' in that they're not in the Government. Briefly being a minister does not mean he was 'in power for decades'.
"a first rate political diarist, at the heart of the Labour Party for decades, a brilliant speaker who said what he believed and believed what he said."
Doesn't make him a political big-hitter does it? There are many ex-ministers who were documenters of political life, none of them ended up on the telly for the rest of their lives - in fact in the media more often, and for longer, than just about ANYONE like Benn was. No ex Prime Minister was as prolific as Tony Benn was for the rest of their life.
"Of course he was on loads of political programmes. Why shouldn't he given his track record? He could even pull large audiences at the Glastonbury Festival!"
Not quite sure what 'track record' he had. Briefly in government, as were hundreds of other people over the decades, you never saw them on TV like Benn was. As I said in my OP his former boss Harold Wilson described him as a man who "immatured with age".
"Who do you think should be on political programmes looking for a perspective of longer than a few years? Jason and Kylie?"
Erm, Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. All ex-PM's from the last 45 years, most were senior ministers for years prior to becoming PM aswell (all except Tony Blair). They got to the top, unlike Tony Benn who wanted to but never did. You saw/see them on TV occasionally. They are/were certainly political big-hitters as they became the leaders of the nation.
I must say David your post was not one of your best!