Tony Benn RIP

[Buce]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26573929

Sad day for me.

[pSinatra]

One of the few politicians with principles.

 

Sad news.  RIP

[Tielemans63]

That is sad.

I remember him doing a couple of lectures when I was at university and even though his politics were noble and just, even as an idealistic student I thought that a lot of it sounded pretty implausible in the real world - now as an adult I'm certain that a lot of the great things he wanted for this country were completely pie in the sky.

He was indeed a principled and compassionate man which in politics was probably why he wasn't always taken seriously. RIP Tony Benn.

[Guest Bilo]

One of the last true socialists, the majority of those in Parliament who call themselves such today are fakes.

[l444ry]

Absolute legend in my eyes. Had more class as a politician and human being than the rest of the House of Commons and Lords put together.

[bovril]

I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said. A principled man who conducted himself with dignity and respect for others.

[Rincewind]

A great articulated speaker who never lost touch with Old Labour values. As others have said he stuck to his principles. Other Labour politicians are not worthy to call themselves socialists. Tony Blair put paid to that. Maybe his ideas were unworkable in today's Britain but at least he cared about someone else other than his own self interests.

[Webbo]

Totally barmy but he ploughed his own furrow so you have to respect that. Him and Michael Foot did more to ensure Mrs Ts re-election than almost anyone else so we should all grateful that.

[Nick]

Why did I read this and think of Harry & Matthew Corbett and Sooty and Sweep?

 

Maybe I was on a Mr. Benn and all his hats children's theme.

[cambridgefox]

Politically not my cup of tea,however always had respect for him regarding his principles .

Concord and smoking a pipe gets my vote also.

[RobHawk]

Great man! didn't agree with all his ideals but i wish more politicians these days were like him! Great tweet by Paul Lewis on twitter too:

 

Paul Lewis â€@paullewismoney  8m

Tony Benn's Five Questions to the Powerful. Regardless of party or politics these are questions we should always ask

[Alf Bentley]

Totally barmy but he ploughed his own furrow so you have to respect that. Him and Michael Foot did more to ensure Mrs Ts re-election than almost anyone else so we should all grateful that.

 

You'd have to throw the SDP and General Galtieri in as major players in Thatcher's 1983 re-election. Interesting to speculate what the result of that election might have been if Labour had gone into it with that Bennite manifesto but without the SDP split and the Falklands War. My guess is that Thatcher would still have won, but it would have been a lot closer....easy to forget that Thatcher wasn't massively popular by about 1982.

 

With hindsight, Benn and his allies did gain too much influence in the Labour Party at that time. He's better remembered as a truly magnificent communicator, I think. He had that rare ability to express complex and controversial views clearly, in an inspirational, often convincing manner. He was like a moral philosopher, getting to the gist of an issue and presenting a convincing case. Unfortunately, politics also requires tactics, compromise, even cynical calculation, which he was less suited to. I heard him speak live a couple of times (including at Glastonbury) - an inspirational communicator.

[Zingari]

He retired from Parliament in 2001, famously saying he wanted to "spend more time on politics".

 

 

i think that's probably the truest statement any politician has ever made.

 

RIP , Wedgie , you were probably one of the most honest and sincere and least self serving  of the  whole bunch. 

[Webbo]

 

Great man! didn't agree with all his ideals but i wish more politicians these days were like him! Great tweet by Paul Lewis on twitter too:

 

Paul Lewis â€@paullewismoney  8m

Tony Benn's Five Questions to the Powerful. Regardless of party or politics these are questions we should always ask

 

I heard him say that or some version of it. Probably the best thing he ever said,totally agree.

[Guest]

Great man.

 

but we all die.

[Lasty]

Proper Politician. It's a shame the current lot have distorted our interpretation of the word. He recognised it was a service and privilege, not a gravy train.

[Guest]

How many current politicians actually believe in politics like Benn did?

[davieG]

Worth noting that he campaigned to renounce his hereditary peerage and was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963 so he could become an MP.

[Guest MattP]

Crow and Benn in a week? Scargill must be shitting it.

RIP Tony, mad a box of frogs and a real man of principal.

All politicians could take a leaf out of your book.

[Jon the Hat]

Great character.  RIP Tony.  He had a good innings, and gave us some wonderful and barmy quotes.  Who says politicians have to live in the real world?

[Chilwell_Fox]

Never agreed with his politics but a good man. Very sad to hear the news.

[Guest]

 

"The flag of radicalism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over Dachau and Belsen" - On Enoch Powell's campaign speech, 1970 general election.

 

"I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free"

 

 

"In developing our industrial strategy for the period ahead, we have the benefit of much experience. Almost everything has been tried at least once" - 1974

 

 

"No medieval monarch in the whole of British history ever had such power as every modern British Prime Minister has in his or her hands. Nor does any American President have power approaching this"

 

 

 

"She believes in something. It is an old-fashioned idea" - Undated on Margaret Thatcher

 

 

[Renart]

Shaped my young political mind. 

 

'Politicians are divided into signposts and weathercocks. Neil Kinnock gave up everything he believed in to get power and ended up with no one believing him about anything. That makes him a weathercock. Margaret Thatcher was a signpost. The trouble was, I thought her sign pointed in the wrong direction. She was not affected by spin-doctors, she said what she meant and people knew what they were voting for. I see myself as being more of a signpost, like her.'

 

You really were a signpost Tony and modern politics (and the labour party) need more like you. 

 

 

Not meant as an attack on Thatcher (we can save that for another time). Ultimately, he was wrong at the end of that speech as unfortunately there wasn't a great ideological shift after Thatcher. Her greatest achievement being a very different 'Tony' and New Labour

[LanguedocFox]

Not sure how many of the posters lived through the year's of Benn's political power, but I did. His death is sad, of course, but a lot of what has been written and said about him today is ludicrous. I've never voted Tory in my life, but any politically aware person who was around during the 1960s, 70s and 80s knows that Tony Benn was a disaster in virtually everything that he did.

 

While in government during the 1960s and 70s, he was breathtakingly inept at running the departments of which he was supposedly in charge: he clearly had no idea of his subject, whether it was technology, energy or industry. He established workers' co-operatives (using public money, but without public oversight) and he ostentatiously joined violent picket lines like that outside the Grundfoss premises. In doing so, he actively encouraged union dinosaurs such as Arthur Scargill, Clive Jenkins, Ken Gill, Jack Jones and the rest, who failed to listen to the social-democratic opinions of most of their members, brought the country to its knees, and led directly to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

As if that were not enough, he helped keep Thatcher in power as one of those who orchestrated Labour's lurch to the left in the early 1980s. In particular, he was one of the architects of the 1983 Labour Party manifesto - what Gerald Kaufman called "The longest suicide note in history." That led to the creation of the Social Democratic Party, which robbed Labour of much of its core talent, and to the unmerited rise of halfwits like Blair.

 

It's simply not good enough to defend Benn by saying that he was principled, or that he was honest and sincere in what he said: Most of what he said was plain wrong - and he wouldn't listen to anyone who argued against what he said.

 

As I say, it's sad that Tony Benn he has died, and I hope that his death was peaceful and painless. But don't believe the bullsh!t: his political legacy, such as it is, is entirely without merit.

[midland_red]

Thanks for everything Tony and all the best  - you were a consistent, honest and principled fighter for the interests of the working class. God knows they're aren't many like you now.