Tony Benn (1925–2014)

There is a long and tedious tradition in the British Labour Party of politicians starting out as socialist firebrands and ending up in the House of Lords. Tony Benn was a rare and refreshing example of someone who moved in the opposite direction. In the 1960s he was a sort of proto-spin doctor to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and a perfectly moderate cabinet minister (though, as the grandly titled Postmaster General, he did come up with a jolly wheeze to remove the monarch’s head from the postage stamps. Her Majesty was not amused). Benn says that he was radicalised by his experience of high office. By the mid ‘70s he was firmly on the Left and remained there over the following decades.

Benn was a compelling orator. He was also one of the great stand-up comedians. This might sound facetious but, as anyone who heard him speak will attest, he was extremely funny and clearly understood the effectiveness of humour as a weapon in the political armoury.

He was not, alas, a great writer. As this book demonstrates his prose is unremittingly flat and, on the page, the jokes have a tendency to fall flat also. The device of framing this collection of political essays as a sequence of letters to his grandchildren soon becomes strained, and then faintly embarrassing, as Benn shoehorns references to his grandchildren into discussions of imperialism or the global financial crisis.

Still, when Benn wrote this in 2009 the world was criminally unjust and going from bad to worse and, when I read it in 2022, nothing had changed. So everything Benn had to say then remains absolutely pertinent now. His hatred of injustice, distrust of the powerful, and faith in the capacity of ordinary people to create a better world continue to inspire.… (mere)