Tony Benn (1925-2014) died this week.
An amazing man. Someone who stuck by his beliefs throughout his life. Even if you disagreed with him, you had to admire his courage, persistence and lack of compromise.
In 2002 he came to Peterborough for his ‘An Audience With’ tour. A packed theatre sat for two hours with him chatting and answering questions, accompanied only by his beloved flask of tea. (Earlier tours also included his pipe, but health and safety regulations put paid to that!) It was one of my political highlights. I was glad to be there. As Benn put it, the tour ‘reignites the public meeting, uninterrupted by Jeremy Paxman or John Humphrys’!
His autobiography is called ‘Dare to be a Daniel’. It’s a reference to a Salvation Army hymn of the same name, sung to him by his father. His parents appeared to have had a stronger Christian faith than he, but in amongst the ‘honest doubts’ of his first chapter in the book, there is a clear belief too. Not a traditional Christian one, but as you read the pages, you see the passion:
Dare to be a Daniel
An amazing man. Someone who stuck by his beliefs throughout his life. Even if you disagreed with him, you had to admire his courage, persistence and lack of compromise.
In 2002 he came to Peterborough for his ‘An Audience With’ tour. A packed theatre sat for two hours with him chatting and answering questions, accompanied only by his beloved flask of tea. (Earlier tours also included his pipe, but health and safety regulations put paid to that!) It was one of my political highlights. I was glad to be there. As Benn put it, the tour ‘reignites the public meeting, uninterrupted by Jeremy Paxman or John Humphrys’!
His autobiography is called ‘Dare to be a Daniel’. It’s a reference to a Salvation Army hymn of the same name, sung to him by his father. His parents appeared to have had a stronger Christian faith than he, but in amongst the ‘honest doubts’ of his first chapter in the book, there is a clear belief too. Not a traditional Christian one, but as you read the pages, you see the passion:Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known.
He surely did that. He dared to make his views and purpose known. An honest politician- a phrase that is not always a juxtaposition of opposites!
In the end, he left parliament after fifty years ‘to devote more time to politics’! He considered politicians as either signposts or weathercocks. The first, clear in their views. The second awaiting the prevailing political winds before deciding. Tony Benn was a great example of the former. I wish there were more. A rare breed.
History will show he was not always right. But he dared to have a purpose. And he dared to stand alone.
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