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Tony Benn Dies.


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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mf7r

Listened to it last night, what a wonderful bloke.

Just listened to that, it was good.

I share some of his Christian held views which I heard him speak about on Radio more recently in more detail.

Some people think because he had a privileged upbringing and attended a public school he came from an aristocratic background which isn't at all true.

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Some people think because he had a privileged upbringing and attended a public school he came from an aristocratic background which isn't at all true.

 

Of course he came from an aristocratic background. His father was a viscount and his grandfather a baronet.

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Of course he came from an aristocratic background. His father was a viscount and his grandfather a baronet.

Yes well I knew he'd renounced his title years back, but he never thought of himself as an aristocrat, and explained why by distinguishing himself from what was referred to as "blue blood" official nobility.

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well he obviously cared enough about his background to change his Who's Who entry. Early in his career he didn't care about putting where he was educated - Westminster School, and New College, Oxford.

 

suddenly, when he did his great big leftwards U-turn in the 1970s, that all changed, and all of a sudden there was no mention of those prestigous, elite institutions any more.

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I saw Tony at the Brampton Folk Festival a few years ago when he took to the stage with the folk singer Roy Bailey. It was easily the best performance in a festival of great acts. He spoke with a genuine passion that was inspiring and he was also highly entertaining with a natural gift for comedic storytelling. Tony had a real warmth about him that entranced the audience. I recorded it on minidisc and must dig it out again for a listen.

 

I don't blame him for living in a four-storey Regency mansion in Holland Park. It wouldn't have made him a more committed socialist nor improved the lot of the poor if he'd lived in a bedsit in Hackney. It would simply have been an empty gesture of martyrdom.

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