The Tony Benn Phenomenon

I think at heart the thing about Tony Benn (aka Viscount Stansgate or Anthony Wedgwood Benn) was that he seemed a decentish sort of bloke and gave off the air that he might be amusing company.

I saw him speak at university (he might still have been Wedgwood Benn at that time) and he was compelling. Verging on bonkers but compelling. The only political speaker I ever saw who could hold a candle to him was Keith Joseph (aka KJo) who came with the same intellectual confidence but from the opposite direction. Also vaguely bonkers. Ultimately (and via the proxy of Thatcherism) Joseph did more to shape the land we live in and Benn achieved the greater fame.

There was a predictable piece about Benn on Feedback on Radio 4 this afternoon, people bemoaning the cancellation of a Rebus adaptation to make way for a Benn retrospective. The general tone was that this had been an exaggerated response to the death of a man who only briefly held ministerial post and never one of the great offices of state. But what all the complaints overlook is that Benn was an adept communicator, hence his piercing of our modern consciousness. He deserved his attention. Our toleration and respect for his philosophy speaks well of the British; far better than the vituperation that the Thatcher death engendered. Plus he was a pipe smoker and as the son and grandson of pipe smokers I've always thought that lent an air of gravitas.