Tony Benn Dies.

[ivanava]

He gave up his title, as there was some law came in, I think, preventing him from having the hereditary title and the automatic seat that peerage gave, in the House Of Lords.

 

Edit to clarify.

 

He couldn't occupy the seat in the house of lords AND hold his seat as an MP, apparently. so he chose the House of Commons over the House of Lords

 

Possibly because that gave him a wage and expenses instead of just expenses.

[Grappler]

So you think a Labour politician would only care about the interests of the working class if they themselves came from a working class background, that's nonsense.

 

No, I am saying they are out of touch with the working class. The majority of them have never had a proper job, have no idea what it is like to be unemployed, have never had to go and sign on, they are what people used to call "Champagne Socialists", going back to their luxury houses at night.

 

I am sure I read recently that the majority of people on the Labour front bench were all millionaires. All middle class, grammar school, then Oxford or Cambridge. I just wish they would own up to the fact that they are just junior Conservatives, or Conservatives with a small "c", or whatever you want to call them. They are literally no different to Cameron, Clegg and Osborne.

 

Dennis Skinner was one of the last (if not the last) Labour politicians who actually walked-the-walk as well as Talked-the-talk.

[blake]

From memory, when he went "left wing", he stopped calling himself Anthony Wedgewood-Benn and became plain old "Tony Benn".

 

Benn did not really turn left until much later than that. Not until the 1970s. Although he probably voted for Wilson in 1963, Wilson being seen at that time as a left winger, Benn himself was not associated with the left wing of the Labour party in the first half of his parliamentary career. He was never a Bevanite, like Wilson was, in the 1950s.

 

opinion is divided as to why he actually did change course so radically the way he did. Denis Healey reckoned he just went nuts and that his careerist interests would have been better served had he remained centrist or centre left. But Benn really did get quite high up in the tumult of the late 70s and early 80s and had he won the Deputy leadership instead of Healey then he just might, although I would say it would have been still unlikely, to have pulled off the leadership and succeeded Foot.

[Ash Tray]

So you think a Labour politician would only care about the interests of the working class if they themselves came from a working class background, that's nonsense.

 

if you haven't walked a mile in someone's shoes how can you know what it is like.

That is why Tory Bliar was such charlatan him and his wife have never had to struggle like the working class.

He was the biggest con merchant out.

 

---------- Post added 18-02-2014 at 15:35 ----------

 

So you think a Labour politician would only care about the interests of the working class if they themselves came from a working class background, that's nonsense.

 

Which class of the population started the labour movement?

[cuttsie]

if you haven't walked a mile in someone's shoes how can you know what it is like.

That is why Tory Bliar was such charlatan him and his wife have never had to struggle like the working class.

He was the biggest con merchant out.

 

---------- Post added 18-02-2014 at 15:35 ----------

 

 

Which class of the population started the labour movement?

The Labour party is not the only thing that has been taken over by the middle and upper classes ,Football is another ,a working class game played by and watched by the working class until the Premier League was thrust upon us resulting in the situation that the ordinary working man could no longer afford the entrance fee.

[Mecky]

No, I am saying they are out of touch with the working class. The majority of them have never had a proper job, have no idea what it is like to be unemployed, have never had to go and sign on, they are what people used to call "Champagne Socialists", going back to their luxury houses at night.

 

I am sure I read recently that the majority of people on the Labour front bench were all millionaires. All middle class, grammar school, then Oxford or Cambridge. I just wish they would own up to the fact that they are just junior Conservatives, or Conservatives with a small "c", or whatever you want to call them. They are literally no different to Cameron, Clegg and Osborne.

 

Dennis Skinner was one of the last (if not the last) Labour politicians who actually walked-the-walk as well as Talked-the-talk.

 

Whoever said that socialists can't be millionaires?

[denlin]

Please don't diss the greatest politician we ever had. I once went to a CND rally in Hyde Park where Tony was speaking. There were a quarter of million people in Hyde Park and not a sound was heard aside from Tony. It was an amazing experience , surreal experience

[blake]

nothing illustrates Benn's chamelon qualities than his attitude to CND. In the 1950s, with the big Aldermaston march and the protests against the h-bomb, of which Michael Foot was the most visible figure, Benn was an MP in those days, but not only was he nowhere to be seen, but used in those days by the party as a spokesman to speak out for multi-lateral defence. He didn't jump on the CND bandwagon until 20 years later.

[janie48]

No, I am saying they are out of touch with the working class. The majority of them have never had a proper job, have no idea what it is like to be unemployed, have never had to go and sign on, they are what people used to call "Champagne Socialists", going back to their luxury houses at night.

 

I am sure I read recently that the majority of people on the Labour front bench were all millionaires. All middle class, grammar school, then Oxford or Cambridge. I just wish they would own up to the fact that they are just junior Conservatives, or Conservatives with a small "c", or whatever you want to call them. They are literally no different to Cameron, Clegg and Osborne.

 

Dennis Skinner was one of the last (if not the last) Labour politician who actually walked-the walk as well as Talked-the talk. )

Yes he probably is, (he's still a serving politician isn't he?) one much admired by politicians in all parties and deservedly.

 

I don't think you need to have "walked the walk" to have empathy for the less privileged. And I don't believe all front bench Labour MP's are "Conservatives with a small "c" they're are many who care deeply about social justice and the values that formed the Labour party. They credit Labour as being the one party that was responsible for many of the social reforms that improved conditions providing opportunities for working class people, that they otherwise wouldn't have had.

 

 

if you haven't walked a mile in someone's shoes how can you know what it is like.

 

[Grappler]

Whoever said that socialists can't be millionaires?

 

Where did I say that? I said they were out of touch, are you saying they are not?