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Tony Benn 1925 - 2014. One of the last TRUE socialist politicians of our era who refused to be sidelined by the cult of "New" Labour and stayed true to his convictions speaking up for those less privileged.

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Correction Commo!

You meant

One of the last TRUE politicians of our era.

A man of conviction. A man with the guts to speak out unlike any of the mealy mouth examples of today, particularly mainstream party leadership.

An orator.... puts me in mind of only one man currently on the political arena... now let me think :)

RIP Tony Benn.

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A typical 'Commie' with a fat bank account...never agreed with his politics,but he was a fine speaker that said it as it is...not the cloud cuckoo land of the rest.

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Never liked him personally, but he stuck to his lifelong principles and that I do applaud.

One politician of a similar ilk was Tam Dalyell.. Whilst holidaying in Scotland a few years ago we decided to visit the National Trust property " The House of Binns". We pulled up about 3.30pm and saw the sign saying that due to a special event, the house would be closed at 2pm. However, Tam was in the doorway and I didn't recognise him at first until he introduced himself. I explained that we were from Nottingham and immediately got into conversation about Forest, County and Cloughie. He kindly explained a bit about his privileged upbringing and amazed us with his kindness. He then called over one of the NT guides and instructed her to give us a complete tour of the house. That man escalated in my estimation greatly. I realised the good he had done for the local community, and that not all his political views were in the mind of a trouble causer. I found him to be kind, friendly and philanthropic. A great man indeed!

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A typical 'Commie' with a fat bank account...never agreed with his politics,but he was a fine speaker that said it as it is...not the cloud cuckoo land of the rest.

There is no dispute that they all have fat bank accounts, but Tony Benn, had principles, and earned his salary, despite what you think of his politics.

The labour version of Maggie in that line.

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Never liked him myself either.

The Benn Diaries were a bit like 'How I Was Right About Everything'.

Politics in this country works best when there are opposing views (especially with the governement) and he was often on things like Question Time in that role.

I think he misinterpreted that as being that his opinion was more important than it actually was.

Like I said, I didn't like the bloke, I didn't agree with a lot of his views and I thought he was misguided - but people like him are still needed in our world.

Same with Bob Crow.

R.I.P.

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Is this the same Tony Benn who gave up his peerage to stay in the House of Commons? The same Tony Benn who used to have his publicity pictures taken with the wall of the enormous kitchen garden behind him not the magnificent home the garden was attached to?

I was taught not to speak ill of the dead so shall say no more.

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One of the great characters in politics, but almost unelectable because of it, bit like Boris Johnson I suppose................ kickme

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I have a collection of books on or by Tony Benn including all nine volumes of his diaries.

I personally think he was one of the giants of the "Labour" movement among others such as Michael Foot & Barbara Castle.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-obituary

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He upset a lot of people when he said bad laws could only be thrown out by violent demonstration. I think he was right...from the suffragette throwing herself under the Kings horse to the poll tax.

Maggie didn't like it when she said 'We will retake the Falklands'...and he asked her 'Who's we? are you going?..are your sons and daughters going?'

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Did he not consider the wishes of the Falklanders? They wanted to remain under British Sovereignty. That should have been good enough for him. He would have given away every dependency and colony imaginable .

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