The death of the 'Most dangerous man in Britain'

Many people will not recognise the name Tony Benn and not all of those that do will remember just what a captivating individual he was.  His death today leaves a gap that will be difficult to fill.  Once vilified by the right wing press as ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’ and dismissed by his own Labour Prime Minister as having ‘immatured with age’, he was one of the rarest of creatures: a conviction politician who preferred principle to position.

Tony Benn had a privileged upbringing: Westminster School, Oxford and a ready-made peerage to inherit; not the usual credentials of a dedicated left-wing opponent of both Britain’s class structure and capitalism.  He entered the UK Parliament at the age of 25 in 1950 and stayed there through successive elections until 2001 when he retired, ‘to devote more time to politics’. The only break in his career in the House of Commons came when he inherited his father’s peerage and was automatically ‘elevated’ to the House of Lords. A fierce believer in democracy, he fought through the courts and won the right to renounce his peerage so that he could stand again for election to the ‘lower’ chamber.

Tony Benn espoused many causes that were deeply unpopular at the time: abolition of capital punishment, opposition to both Gulf Wars and, as part of his commitment to equality, supporting the ordination of women to the Anglican priesthood. Unlike some other conviction politicians he was unfailingly courteous to his opponents, charming as well as compelling in debate and entirely devoted to his family’s happiness and wellbeing. Above all, his instincts were to do what was right, regardless of personal political cost, to make the world a fairer and safer place.

Tony Benn followed the truth as he perceived it, however uncomfortable that might have been.  He might have believed, mistakenly or otherwise, that he had a better grasp of the truth than most others, but he also embraced genuinely open, personal dialogue, stating: ‘You have to be tremendously respectful, throughout life, of other people’s convictions’.  

Never a stranger to the well-turned phrase, Tony Benn recognized the power of ideas over structures and systems claiming, ‘People will die for what they believe in. They won’t die for the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement’.

Regardless of whether his politics were right or wrong, his instincts were unerringly and implacably ethical; it is sad to think that it is hard, if not impossible, to identify a candidate to fill his shoes now that he is gone.