Opinion of Tony Benn

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In many respects, perhaps most respects actually, an admirable man. But it's hard to overlook what happened in the 80s and late 70s. Not so much because what he proposed was insane (some of it wasn't, actually. Because he took such an ideological approach to politics, he was able to look at certain things from a different perspective than is the norm for career politicians such as himself; support for manufacturing and saving money from North Sea Oil into a trust fund are the two obvious ones, but there are others) and would have led to Labour becoming a chronically weak party, but because of the mindlessly destructive role his supporters played in Labour's long civil war. I mean, my overall view of him is positive, but no one in politics is a saint.