[Phil Whalley]

When Stanley played Walsall in 2007, me and Karen were outside Euston station having some breakfast before catching the train to Birmingham, and we noticed that Tony Benn was sitting by himself at the next table to us. So we invited him to join us, and without hesitation he accepted. The thing that I noticed was how interested he was in what we did, and he was particularly taken by the fact that Karen was a qualified social worker. In other words, he wanted the conversation to be about us and what we thought, rather than about him. I remember we did ask him about his views on the late-70s and the miners' strike, and on the impact of Blair on the Labour Party. As it happened, he was on the same train as us, as he was on his way to speak to a small gathering commemorating a women's trade union movement that had started in the Midlands. And as he tromped off in his hiking boots, you couldn't help but admire someone who was, even then, in his eighties and yet still had the energy and motivation to contribute to public life in an undeniably selfless way.

I think those that criticise him for his privileged background ought to consider this. You can't choose the family into which you are born, but you can to some degree choose how you utilise the advantages that family wealth brings. In this respect, you can do a lot worse than the example set by Tony Benn.