Tony Benn RIP

tailwindhome

greg66_tri_v2.0

Although I disagree (surprise, surprise) with his politics, he made a major contribution to getting Concorde into the air, and for that, I can forgive a lot.

ballysmate

Disagreed with his politics but he is to be respected as someone who stood up for his beliefs.

MaxwellBygraves

'The older I get, the more I realise every single generation has to fight the same battles, again and again and again.' - Benn on history

TheStone

Will be interested to see how much inheritance tax his kids pay.
Watch what they do, not what they say. All of them.

veronese68

His kids are not him, what they do may not be what he would have done. He was a man that was true to his word. I like the quote in the OP, very true.

notsoblue

TheStone wrote:

Will be interested to see how much inheritance tax his kids pay.
Watch what they do, not what they say. All of them.

Vulgar.

warreng

A great man - and a giant of the modern British political age

I was brought up to hang on his every word

You realise you're getting old when your heroes start dying

bompington

First Crow then Benn - not a good week for well-to-do socialists.

UndercoverElephant

bompington wrote:

First Crow then Benn - not a good week for well-to-do socialists.

Yeah, I don't quite get the reticence a lot of people have towards rich socialists. I would imagine that if he was less of a socialist, he'd have been substantially richer, and indeed if more rich people were socialists, we'd all be in a better state.

ballysmate

bompington wrote:

First Crow then Benn - not a good week for well-to-do socialists.

Is McClusky looking peaky?

mrfpb

If Ken Lingstone pop's his clogs, I'll suspect a conspiracy.

vermin

WarrenG wrote:

A great man - and a giant of the modern British political age

I was brought up to hang on his every word

You realise you're getting old when your heroes start dying

I was brought up to believe he was a hypocrit, a scoundrel and a menace.

I don't know if that's true, but This be the Verse.

Concorde was better than communism.

secretsam

Well ,there's a whole load of positivity on here about Tony.

Personally, I thought he was a giant amongst men, and was that rare thing these days - a politician who believed in what he said.

arran77

The man stood up for what he believed in and had back bone which is a lot more than can be said for most of the politicians these days.

He very much believed in the little man and supporting grass roots issues, local to me he was a great advocate of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and was staunchly anti-war.

All of these things I greatly admire and for that reason I say RIP Tony Benn.

veronese68

vermin wrote:

I was brought up to believe he was a hypocrite .

Funny, I was always told the complete opposite and that he was true to his word. This from my mother a true Gucci communist.

vermin wrote:

Concorde was better than communism.

Couldn't agree more.

mrfpb

Benn fought for the right to give up his hereditary Peerage and seat in the house of Lords, so that he could stand for democratic election as an MP. He left the House of Commons "to concentrate on politics" and never returned to the Lords, which would have be seen as his due following 50yrs as an MP. So a man who lived by his beliefs, and pursued the principles of democracy rather personal ambition.

TheStone

I had a lot of respect for him until the whole tax thing.
There weren't many politicians left that I trusted (whether I agreed with their politics or not).

EKE_38BPM

A conviction politician who put his peerage where his mouth was.
He was one of the first politicians I remember noticing and he always had my respect.


RIP

ballysmate

notsoblue wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Will be interested to see how much inheritance tax his kids pay.
Watch what they do, not what they say. All of them.

Vulgar.

Vulgar? Perhaps.
Always amusing when the value of the estates of dyed in the wool commies are revealed.
Ralph Milliband ?

warreng

Socialists should be poor?

arran77

WarrenG wrote:

Socialists should be poor?

Yes, as Churchill once said "The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

cookeeemonster

arran77 wrote:

WarrenG wrote:

Socialists should be poor?

Yes, as Churchill once said "The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Churchill said a lot of s*it, some tongue in cheek, some totally contradicting something else he once said (he was also a liberal mp at times in his career as well as conservative dont forget)

Tony Benn RIP - I doubt I'd agree with everything he said but a giant of a man among todays f*ckwit politicians.

As for the rich thing - a rich man who fights for the poor is a damn good man in my book. Totally opposite to the actions of our current government millionaires.

ballysmate

Edit Sorry. Double post.

arran77

CookeeeMonster wrote:

arran77 wrote:

WarrenG wrote:

Socialists should be poor?

Yes, as Churchill once said "The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Churchill said a lot of s*it, some tongue in cheek, some totally contradicting something else he once said (he was also a liberal mp at times in his career as well as conservative dont forget)

Tony Benn RIP - I doubt I'd agree with everything he said but a giant of a man among todays f*ckwit politicians.

As for the rich thing - a rich man who fights for the poor is a damn good man in my book. Totally opposite to the actions of our current government millionaires.

I realise that a lot of what Churchill said was either tongue in cheek or provocative......both are the reasons I quoted him

Ballysmate wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Will be interested to see how much inheritance tax his kids pay.
Watch what they do, not what they say. All of them.

Vulgar.

Vulgar? Perhaps.
Always amusing when the value of the estates of dyed in the wool commies are revealed.
Ralph Milliband ?

We heard you on page one Bally :P

MisterMuncher

"Ah, I see you're not too socialist to own shoes!"

The argument of a simpleton.

bompington

No, it's not the argument of a simpleton. We hear an awful lot about fairness, people earning too much money, and redistribution - it's entirely reasonable to point it out if those who espouse such arguments have their wealth pointed out.

MisterMuncher

Socialism doesn't actually dictate there can't be richer and poorer people, y'know. It's not synonymous with Communism, which is the only way a rich socialist could be considered a prima facie contradiction. It's a fairly basic ad hom otherwise.

I doubt you'd find many Socialists who think Benn unworthy of the money he earned. Fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

TheStone

MisterMuncher wrote:

Socialism doesn't actually dictate there can't be richer and poorer people, y'know. It's not synonymous with Communism, which is the only way a rich socialist could be considered a prima facie contradiction. It's a fairly basic ad hom otherwise.

I doubt you'd find many Socialists who think Benn unworthy of the money he earned. Fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

Agree totally. As long as you pay your tax.
Now I know nearly everyone with money dodges inheritance tax, just didn't expect it from Benn.

arran77

Inheritance tax is far from fair, you pay taxes all your working life and then your wealth gets taxed again when you die, sounds all very capitalist to me, very far from socialist IMO, therefore I can see why Benn would try to avoid it.

I know that there is a threshold below which inheritance tax is not payed but even for a wealthy socialist it must be a bitter pill to swallow

warreng

Just seen this on the BBC obit

"Like most Westminster hacks of a certain age, I interviewed him a couple of times, but my most poignant memory is of him ringing me to cancel an appearance on Radio 4's Westminster Hour, when I was a producer there.

He explained he was very sorry to let us down, but he thought his wife might die that night.

I can't think of many people, in such terrible circumstances, who would even have remembered to make such a call - but it illustrates the sense of duty and obligation which, I think, drove him."