When Tony Benn left Parliament after 51 years he quoted his wife
Caroline's remark that now he would have 'more time for politics'. And
so this has proved: in the first seven years of this century he has helped
reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass campaigns
and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral and political
issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he has been
keeping his diaries.Commenting on the demise of the New Labour
project from the re-election of Tony Blair in 2001 to the ultimate foreign
policy disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, he gives other prescient
accounts of the government's by-passing of Cabinet, parliament and the
party, of the 'war on terror', the debate about Islam, globalisation and
the changes in British society. Although he is no longer in power or in
parliament, Tony Benn remains a figure of enormous respect whose
direct views, honestly expressed, have often awakened the national
conscience. His latest "Diaries", human and challenging in turn, are an
enthralling read.
Caroline's remark that now he would have 'more time for politics'. And
so this has proved: in the first seven years of this century he has helped
reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass campaigns
and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral and political
issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he has been
keeping his diaries.Commenting on the demise of the New Labour
project from the re-election of Tony Blair in 2001 to the ultimate foreign
policy disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, he gives other prescient
accounts of the government's by-passing of Cabinet, parliament and the
party, of the 'war on terror', the debate about Islam, globalisation and
the changes in British society. Although he is no longer in power or in
parliament, Tony Benn remains a figure of enormous respect whose
direct views, honestly expressed, have often awakened the national
conscience. His latest "Diaries", human and challenging in turn, are an
enthralling read.
| EVENTS |
