R.i.p. Tony benn
 

r.i.p. to tony benn a true politician who we wont see the likes again:(



and also a belated r.i.p. to bob crowe who was demonised by the hedge fund press.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

2 decent blokes no doubt R.I.P.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Rest in Peace Tony. The world is a poorer place today.
He was a politician who really believed in helping those less able to help themselves.
A socialist, a true socialist.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

True, the fact he was a multi-millionaire carried little weight wi the fella,40 odd years ago,had the good fortune to meet him. a proper gent n one of the last true socialsts.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Yes Cashy - he would knock the spots off the present stuff that think they can govern the country.
As you say the fact that he had money didn't blind him to the needs of the people who hadn't. No 'I'm alright Jack' about him.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Amen to that cmon.......

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Yes, RIP Tony Benn, a man who always spoke his mind. However, I have to smile cynically at some of the eulogies that are pouring in. If he had come on here and expounded his views on immigration (he was in favour and thought it was a good thing), law and order (he believed in rehabilitation, rather than retributive justice) and quite a few other subjects, he would have been castigated as a bleeding heart do-gooder!

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Tony Benn stood up for what was 'right', one of the very few politicians that was worthy of respect, he will be remembered with reverence.

"If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people".
RIP Tony Benn. 

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

I may not have agreed with him, but he was passionate about what he thought was right.He didn't seem to rely on 'soundbite' politics...telling those who listened what he thought they wanted to hear....If you didn't like what he said then it was your problem...and he would try to persuade you that his ideals were the right ones.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

On the other hand, his position on the EU, and his desire to make MPs more responsive to the wishes of their constituents would have won him lots of support. A commited socialist who was never a mere ideologue ... R.I.P. Tony Benn.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

R.I.P. Tony Benn

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Quite, right, Eric, his Euro-scepticism made him an odd man out with most left-wing socialists who are solidly pro-EU. However, I still find it ironic that he's now being praised, when the very views he supported on immigration, law and order and other subjects would see your average punter called everything under the sun from a do-gooder to much worse on here!

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Maybe he was one of those rare (really rare:rolleyes:) politicians who fought for what he believed in, not for what he was told to believe in.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

No maybe about it in my view, Eric, Tony Benn walked it like he talked it. He also knew that you can't be a "traditional socialist" and think that Enoch was right...which is why he wouldn't have lasted five minutes on here before he was being castigated for being a do-gooder whose like had ruined the country!

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

tony benn stood up to the party leader unlike this current shower of crap we have now who are so far up their leaders arse all you can see is their toe nails

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

I thought DC was walking funny...now I know why! :)

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

A multi millionaire with his own mansion on his private estate, a £3 million mansion in London, a private Westminster School education, his kids educated at the 'Socialist Eaton'.

Yep, a typical true left wing Socialist.

But then, he could afford to be. After all, he didn't have to practice it to preach it.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Now look here, Gordon, I'm just starting to develop a hangover from imbibing large amounts of alcohol this afternoon, Stanley have just been beaten in injury time at Rochdale, the last thing I need is you telling us that our working-class hero who we are all gathered here to praise was actually a champagne socialist! ��

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Yes, WH, but look on the bright side, think what a hangover you'd have had if they'd won!
Champagne doesn't give you a hangover!

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

If yeh had bothered to read the thread people are well aware of his background, :( Even Cameron n his cronies are, but even they weren't that mean mouthed.:mad:

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Another 3 degrees of separation thread wander sort of.

Was in Hastings yesterday for a pals funeral, the morning of which found me at the town museum to pass a couple of hours. Hadn't realised until I came across a range of exhibits that Robert Tressell who wrote The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist that great and savage analysis on the relationship between the working classes and their employers around the time the Labour Party was being founded had lived for a while there and based Mugsborough on the town.

Great read and piece of social history.

I must have another read of the chapter called "The Great Money Trick"

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

'She was evil and will not be missed'.
'summat else to detest her for'.
'its made my day'.
'Still, if you must defend the bitch'.

Recognize any of those quotes, cashman? I didn't realize you had a problem with 'mean mouthing' dead politicians.
Or is it a case of dual standards?

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Gordon, I think it is a case of Cashy not liking MT...well no...I think he hated her
Tony Benn was a different kettle of fish. There were lots of things I actually didn't like about him, but I could still respect him because he was his own man.

None of us have nail holes if we look at our palms.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

No i aint got a problem wi it, its more you i dont care for much.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Maybe I'm being a bit thick here, but..

Are you saying you can't be a socialist if you have wealth?
Are you saying that because you are a socialist you cannot want what is best for your kids?
Are you saying that to be a true socialist you have to be as poor as the little match girl?
Are you saying that only capitalists are allowed to be wealthy?

The difference between a rich socialist and a rich capitalist is that one wants others to have what he has and strives to give them the opportunity to do so, whilst the other wants everything for himself, even though he will never use most of it.

Funny how capitalists claim that socialists are just jealous of the wealth they have, then when they actually find a socialist who has a few quid they accuse them of betraying the cause

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

found this on the bbc website today ... channel 4 interviewed tony benn and while they were there he videotaped a message that could only be broadcast after he died ...

BBC News - Tony Benn: 'I'll check that on transmission'

rip tony benn...

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

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.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

R.I.P. Mr. Benn, a true socialist, I suspect he decided to go early so that New Labour will be aggravated by the sound of him spinning in his grave because of what they've done to his party.
:(

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

labour are begining to sound like a washing powder advert

labour the party of the people

new labour - now with added tory

new improved new labour - screw the people their too thick to get it

even newer new new labour - removes all remaining shreds of dignity this country has left

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Yes, Tony Benn was born into a privileged family......and as Phil Whalley has so rightly pointed out we can not choose the family we are born into.
I looked at the link that Jen provided(thanks Jen) and on the BBC site(which I know is pro-Labour - before anyone points this out to me) there was another clip of Tony Benn speaking.
he says

'The real division in society is between the people who create the wealth by working, and those who own the wealth.
Those who own the wealth have too much power and use it to control those who create the wealth'

As I have said, I didn't agree with some of the ideas that were put forward by Tony Benn, but I think that in spite of him being privileged by birth he could see the divisions and tried his best to redress the balance.

I believed that he was something quite rare - an honest politician who said what he felt, what he believed in, regardless of what the party told him to say.

He was eloquent and educated...but I felt that he would listen to the common man and take on board his concerns.
I respect him for this and wish that there were more like him in politics today

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

His views on immigration were based on attracting the elite brains of Europe to our companies to develop cutting edge technologies, not attract dirty scumbags who want to spend their days picking the pockets of ordinary working folk.
Not a do-gooder but a man with vision, unlike our current shower of leaders who couldn't organise that proverbial drinking session in a beer manufacturer's.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

I once spent half an hour chatting to Tony Benn in the Green Room at Granada studios, we obviously disagreed politically but was a very very interesting man to speak to.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

John...John, welcome back. Ooh I have missed you.
I hope you are feeling better.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Welcome back Jaysay, hope your well.x

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Best wishes , John . :)

I have mixed feelings about Tony Benn .

I have no doubt that he was a man of integrity who believed that politics could make the world a better place , and who was very much opposed to making personal attacks on other politicians , preferring to stick to debating ideas and not personalities .

But after the 1979 General Election defeat of Labour I did not find his antics within the Labour Party at all appealing .

In fact I would say that he was foremost among Labour politicians who made Labour unelectable , which in its turn led to 18 years of Conservative Rule and ultimately the creation of New Labour . Not a good legacy .

Any way , best wishes again John .

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Great to see you back, mate!

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Hey there John ... you are still a misguided, blinkered tory; but I missed you;) It's great to hear from you again.:alright:

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Come to think of it ... C'mon seems to have gone missing ... I hope he's ok and that he will pop up now that Jaysay's back. It hasn't been the same on here without those two going at it.;)

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Aye, welcome back jay, I'll settle for your partisan fuzzy logic anytime over some of the unedifying posts being regurgitated on another thread.

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Hello Fella! Good to see you back again. :)

Yin-Yang Eric, that or Siamese twins. :)

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

Any chance that this thread could be integrated with the " The Labour Gravy Train Thread " ?

William Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P. , and father of Tony Benn , or Anthony Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P

Tony Benn , or Anthony Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P and son of William Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P.

Hilary James Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P. and son of Tony Benn , or Anthony Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P. , and grandson of William Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P.

And we haven't finished yet .

There is Emily Sophia Wedgewood Benn , granddaughter of Tony Benn , or Anthony Wedgewood Benn , Labour M.P.

She was an unsuccessful Parliamentary candidate in the 2010 . She was the youngest Parliamentary Candidate at the 2010 General Election .

Oh , she was a Labour candidate by the way .

Second thoughts .

Perhaps there should be a new thread , " The Benn Gravy Train " .

Re: R.i.p. Tony benn
 

I like Tony Benn but he cannot be forgiven for shutting down the pirate radio stations