Anyone else seeing the hilarious irony developing here? "My party's dick is bigger than your party's dick", in a Tony Benn thread, a man renowned for his unwavering belief in the democratic process even when it went against him. There's some pretty silly people on this board.
Just an observation - he was a conviction politician and upon death was lauded by our national news provider whilst another conviction politician Mrs T did not upon death receive any adulation.
Double standards anyone??
She had a ceremonial funeral, with military honours, a guard of honour and it took place at St Paul's. How much adulation do you want?
And the TV channels virtually cancelled all their programmes to bring live coverage of her funeral with every front page of every tabloid mourning her (well apart from the Mirror).
The comparative silence yesterday from the media speaks volumes.
Maybe because Benn, despite being an adored public figure, made very little impact on public life in Britain - he never led and he squandered what little power he did ever have when he was in the cabinet. Thatcher was not only PM, but also the first lady PM, and was at the height of her time the most popular PM. She frequently ranks as best post-war PM in both public polls and by historians and political experts, was the most successful Prime Minister in terms of winning votes and length of office she delivered her party and she started her Premiership with one of the poorest and most destitute developed countries in the Western world, a country with 3-day weeks, rolling blackouts, national striking and dead bodies piling up, and left office having transformed the UK into a modern financially successful nation, as well as having successfully defended the Falklands and negotiated a favourable deal with the EU. People whine about the financial inequality but across the board nearly all UK citizens were richer than they were in 1979 and comparatively richer than their foreign counterparts. I didn't particularly agree with the (semi)state funeral, but at least Benn didn't have a bunch of pathetic morons with a massive collective chip on their shoulders holding parties and lighting bonfires and effigies to celebrate his death.
Like Cameron , Thatcher came to power on the back of a global financial crisis that had nothing to do with the previous labour government and her/his management prolonged the pain and only succeeded for the wealthy few. Majority of Brits are not feeling the recovery, then or now. Thatcher destroyed communities for a generation out of spite.
Not a single part of this post is demonstrably true - it sounds like something Polly Toynbee wrote.
All the Lefty foghorns were at it - Owen Jones, Abbott et al were tweeting all the way through the funeral.
Abbott has form on this though as she once tweeted Labour Party propaganda during a 2 minute's silence. The woman is the personification of the Labour Party - a useless, unscrupulous disgusting drain on public resources and waste of oxygen.
What a truly nasty post.
Given some the bile & hatred regurgitated straight from CiF by people on here towards the Tories/UKIP/LibDems (see post above mine for perfect example) my post was relatively pleasant.
Being nice doesn't get you very far in politics - sadly this was very true for Benn - nicest guy but never got much of a crack at the whip.
If you think Tony Benn was "nice" then you know nothing about politics at all.
The bloke spent most of the 1980s stabbing his lifelong friends in the back to try and takeover the party.
He wasn't always the kindly Grandpa he became in his dotage.
Well yes I was largely referring to his later years, so yes I do know something about politics, the history lesson isn't necessary.
Besides, anyone who causes disruption and discord in the Labour Party can't be that bad a person.
Coming onto a rip thread at linking about people being a waste of oxygen - I wonder, how did the Tory party get dubbed the nasty party?
Thanks for reminding me why I joined the Labour Party in the first place.
1) I've never voted Tory 2) they were dubbed the nasty party by a group so pathetic that they had to resort to such childish tactics 3) if you don't like nasty parties then why are you a member of Labour? They have been responsible for a lot of extremely nasty stuff in the last few decades.
I genuinely feel sorry for you being so angry and bitter. Good luck I you quest for a meaningful life. Tony Benn will be missed.
Is this supposed to be a RIP thread or a political debate ?
Although I am Labour though and through as I posted earlier I wasn't a fan of Benn politically and was active in the Dennis Healey / Roy Hattersley camp in the 80's. I feel we should be showing him some respect in this thread .
Many on the right asked that we did this for Thatcher.Can we have the same courtesy here please?
Utmost respect for the man despite disagreeing with much of what he said and did.
He was driven by ideology rather than opportunism, which afflicts so many present day politicians, and refused to be a slave to suppression of his views by the party machine. He always had respect for his opponents too another rapidly disappearing virtue.
One thing that shone through was that he didn't engage in personality politics. Ormiston gave a lovely story above about him telling a young student that he should not 'hate' Tories.
Benn himself had friends in the opposing camp , for example he attended Enoch Powell's funeral.
Comments
Although I am Labour though and through as I posted earlier I wasn't a fan of Benn politically and was active in the Dennis Healey / Roy Hattersley camp in the 80's. I feel we should be showing him some respect in this thread .
Many on the right asked that we did this for Thatcher.Can we have the same courtesy here please?
He was driven by ideology rather than opportunism, which afflicts so many present day politicians, and refused to be a slave to suppression of his views by the party machine. He always had respect for his opponents too another rapidly disappearing virtue.
RIP
Benn himself had friends in the opposing camp , for example he attended Enoch Powell's funeral.