Guest post from Louise Mensch: "Tony Benn represented something truly valuable in the world"

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I was so sad to hear - via Mumsnet in fact - of the death of Tony Benn, a man I never actually met. I did once tell his son Hillary, a Labour MP, how much I admired his father - but that was a close as I got.

Tony Benn represented something truly valuable in the world. He acted on what he believed. For his love of socialism, he was prepared to walk away from a peerage, and even from the nobility of his family name. No longer Viscount Stansgate, he wouldn't even allow people to call him Anthony Wedgewood-Benn - he was to be "Tony Benn". And so he remained, until he died.

There was that rumpled, brilliant look about the man that is so endearing to our clever, messy nation. Like JRR Tolkien, whom he resembled, he loved to smoke a pipe; a particularly English vice. He drank tea, and was well-read. He seems never to have regretted walking away from "my Lord" and the bowing and scraping of the era.

Benn also possessed, as well as conviction, a great generosity of spirit. His respect and affection for Margaret Thatcher showed him to be a man who understood that political opposition does not have to, and should not, equal enmity (more Labour MPs wrote me kind notes after I resigned my seat than Conservative ones, by the way). Benn said of Thatcher "she was a signpost, not a weathervane". That was why he respected her; and it is why I respected him.

He had convictions; he lived those convictions. He was true to himself, bright, and kind. He was raised by a feminist mother, and it showed, in the best possible way. Labourlist drew my attention to his generous piece on Thatcher which told this story:

"I remember her at the funeral of MP Eric Heffer. I was asked to make a speech and as I was waiting, there was someone behind me coughing. It was Mrs Thatcher, and at the end I thanked her for coming and she burst into tears. She had come out of respect for someone whose opinions she disagreed with."

I believe that there are a great many MPs and commentators who did not share any of Benn's beliefs, but who realise today that in him, we have lost a national treasure; a genuine servant of the people, who did not need to be a nobleman, to be a noble man. May many of us involved in politics on all sides learn from his lessons of authenticity, humility, generosity, and kindness.

On a similar note, mark steel's independent column is funny and touching on both tb and bob crow, and in the context of this thread, extremely on the mark about right-wing responses to both deaths.

Entirely unrelatedly, though, and regardless of my feelings about her piece, if you really didn't pay Louise, actually you should have. Freelance writers can't live off thin air! If you are a commercial site soliciting content, have the decency to pay people for it.

Mark Steel - thanks for the pointer, zoemaguire, this was a great read.

That was a breath of fresh air, thanks Zoe.

I hope the guest writer reads it and learns. Reads it and weeps.

That's a brilliant piece.

An interesting piece. Thank you zoe and trib.

Louise, forgive me if I list my own qualifications and then explain why neither you, not I for that matter, are fit to be included in the same sentence as TB.

I have a first class history degree from a RG university, a masters, a phD and two teaching degrees. I also (since last week) have a medical degree. Yet sometimes (most of the time) I can be lightweight, superficial and even a bit vacuous (I have a strange penchant for BINTM)

I can understand MN's desire to get a Tory view of one of the greatest politicians this country has ever seen but he deserved a decent, intellectual and comprehensive piece and yours, sadly, is none of those.

Whether you like it or not, when people think of you they think of gossip columns, celebrity opportunism and fluff. When we remember Tony Benn we remember integrity, idealism and personal sacrifice (is there any need to juxtapose what he gave up for public duty with your own attitude to public duty?)

People are angry with MN for a crass choice and irritated by your defence of yourself. Yes I would defend myself if someone called me stupid but I don't think I would do it by calling a group of often well-educated women "muppets." Perhaps you are sometimes your own worst enemy.

T

That Mark Steel piece is fab

Thanks for the link to the mark steel piece tribpot.
See MNHQ?
thats how it's done.

I reckon the Indie paid him though:) That is also how it's done!

(I have been slightly misquoted above. I said if Crow had kept his weight to Benn levels he would have had 30 more years of helping his union members. Obesity is one of the biggest issues we face. I don't think it was wrong or rude to suggest one lesson learnt is if you get very fat you might well die at 52. Sadly it is also a class issue in the UK - Benn lived long and Crow didn't. It can also be an issue with some couples - slim younger wife (LM even) and fatter older man with women living off male earnings - socialism and feminism still have a very long way to go).

It can also be an issue with some couples - slim younger wife (LM even) and fatter older man with women living off male earnings - socialism and feminism still have a very long way to go).

Flipping heck, did you mean to be so rude Laura?

Laura,

Bang on about obesity. But I really must correct you. Peter's not fat and I was a breadwinner when I married him. Although there's no doubt he's leagues more successful than me, I had done pretty well for myself and I continue to work and earn at a high level. So "younger woman living off a fat older man" isn't very fair ::bristles at insult to husband::

I do agree that obesity and class are still sadly linked as a problem and its something we need to tackle in society. Exercise (aerobic) is absolutely key. 52 is horribly young to die. There is a lot of denial about obesity. Perhaps another thread.

Laura does bang on about obesity, but it's a bit rude to point it out.

Yes, but it's the only issue which matters on the thread. Where LM is allowed to write about a politician on the left (of course she is and I liked the piece) but the only issue about LM that matters to many women is as long as women marry men who earn more and give up their careers for their husbands in 20 years'; time it will still be a Mr Benn and Mr Crow we write about rather than Mrs Mensch Tory party leader. That is the sad thing when women's supposedly free choices are so very often the choice which ensures they and other women ultimately are damaged and women never advance.

As for weight I've only seen pictures of Mr M. I thought his BMI looked higher than that of LM but I may be wrong. You got a lot of bigger richer men with blond women 20 years younger than them who are of course slim as that's the dynamic - man pays and woman pleases. That is the betrayal which has hurts so many women in the about the LM situation. it is my general point to all women that the personal is political and every one even those on £15k a year who give up the chance to earn more as their husband is on £30k and stay home to mind children are damaging other women.

^obviously meant Laura and Louise ...

Now now, it's a huge issue in every sense. One of the biggest killers. That programme last week about people in supposed food poverty and some of the people were absolutely massive. I don't know how anyone kept a straight face.

Then get yourselves over to the thread about Clarissa Dickson Wright and lay into her for being overweight and erm dead

Wonders who MNHQ will ask to blog about her. Kate Moss?

'Just because you can doesn't mean you should' MrsMench something a psychiatrist colleague once said to his gaggle of juniors.

From my perspective one thing I have learned as a professionally registered person is to have an honest dialogue with myself regarding what I am best qualified to do. Did you not at any point stop to consider whether you were the best possible choice to write a piece such as this? People with integrity ask this of themselves frequently.

People are taking umbrage not with your political persuasion and the appropriateness of your being asked as a rightwinger to commentate upon your polar opposite - indeed one poster has already pointed out that cross party friendships are perfectly normal and not surprising at all. They are saying that they all thought it was shoddily written, lightweight in tone, poorly researched and with the most tenuous of connections to its subject. If being in parliament is what it takes to write a 'tribute' then I would rather read one from the person who cleaned Tony Benns HoC office, whoever he or she may be. They likely knew him better than you.

We don't need our own heartfelt and sincere tributes validated by some celeb o gob as mentioned earlier. It is irrelevent whether you are paid or not in actual cash because the pay off from all this will be further click bait from Mensch and her ilk.

Oh and just found this - ""men have been the primary breadwinners in all cultures at all times in history" Lousie Mensch.

You should have studied Anthropology and maybe then you'd not be so ignorant of anything outside of your own ethnocentricity.

Some feminist you are.

I find it a bit ridiculous that Tweedledee and Tweedledum up thread there take such personal umbrage to comments about themselves (Vacuous? Me? Sob sob) yet feel perfectly content to make unnecessary and rude assumptions about a man that they have never met nor knew anything of his exercise or diet.

Laura, you are being disingenuous again, and you know you are. You know exactly what food poverty is, and it isn't a lack of food that is going to have Michael Buerk going starry eyed and Bob Geldof and Midge Ure running to write a sad little song. It's eating crap because crap is cheap, and crap is fattening.

And we write about Tony Benn and Bob Crowe not because they were men. But because they were a bit important and relevant. Like we wrote about Mrs Thatcher. Like we will one day write about Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel. We won't write about LM, no, you're quite right. But that will have nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman.

There are few women in power because they take the decisions LM took (and many mumsnetters take) and it's a great shame. The personal is political and we are all examples to others in all kinds of ways.

As for Clarrisa DW that is very sad too. I just read the Times obituary. She qualified as a barrister very young but then inherited £2.5m when her mother died which was a huge sum in 1971 so gave up work and did parties etc and I don't thin it made her happy . So the lessons there are tie up any money children might get into trusts until they are at least 30 and sensible and secondly the obvious - the fat die young so we all need to watch our weight and take today's advice from the papers - eat how many always ate and you're fine. Cut out the sugar and junk and alcohol and make with high good fats, medium protein and lots of veg. There endeth my lesson but I now need to go to work to fund all the benefits claimants who rely upon me for their daily carbs.

Not quite sure how the fat die young works out in its reversal re people like Linda McCartney who lived a fantastically healthy life and died young.

Don't recall Robin Cook being overweight either and he died young.

Thinness is no gauge of health. Have you ever attended a post mortem Laura? Well I have- plenty of them and fat around the internal organs can be seen in people who are thin to the point of being clinically underweight. It is hidden fat. Cholesterol levels can be stratospheric in people who appear fit and healthy. This can be familial or not familial.

People who possess the crudest of knowledge about physiology will come out with these nonsensical blanket statements. I am aware that I am offering only a few examples- I could offer you thousands- but instead request you actually point that intelligence of yours towards a class in basic Health Promotion with some Anat/Phys on the side.