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.

Good lord BIWI, enough already.

Nothing wrong with ND and a good post from Louise Mensch. There are some extremely left wing posters on mumsnet who seem to think there is something wrong with someone on the right writing about someone on the left. Far from it. If Benn could be generous to Lady Thatcher (something Mr Crow found hard) then Mensch can write about Benn.

it may not be possible to take it down.

An Obit/Oped from a right winger is fine if it is well written because the HoC is full of strong cross bench friendships that largely go unknown and unremarked upon. However stating that you believe this is a 'good post' i.e quality writing shows poor judgement Laura of what quality journalism actually is.

It isn't good writing and that is what most of the people here are objecting to.

And they also object to a celeb-o-gob being deemed appropriate to comment on a topic that carries more weight than facelifts and being a modern day geisha to your husband.

There is nothing wrong with someone from the right writing about someone who was left-wing (or vice versa) - far from it, it can be very interesting. However, there is something deeply wrong about someone with the intellectual depth of a marshmallow writing about someone who was so extremely principled, intelligent, thoughtful and well-read. It's like getting a Big Brother contestant who once expressed an interest in politics to write an obit for Margaret Thatcher, which I'm sure you'll agree would be a bit of an insult to the memory of a world-famous and highly respected politician.

Laura not so. I'm sure Anne Widdecombe would have written far better.

I liked it. What is wrong with it? It is only a blog post. None of us expect much of women who marry much older men and give up their names and careers for them but it was no worse than others I have read on here.

It will be a good day when the leader of the transport union is female and Benn and Crow or their equivalents are female but as long as the Mensches of this world cop out of their roles in power we will never reach that position.

Will LM be actually reading this? Might she post to explain herself?

What was the thinking behind this? A more vacuous, pointless blog would be hard to find.

Well I cannot totally disagree with your last comment Laura to be fair. Whilst the choice to be at home with very small children must be respected and protected, Mensch let down a lot of people with her brief dalliance with politics and has been desperately seeking alternative forms of professional validation without the grinding hard work ever since.

Enjoying something and saying it is 'good' though are not one and the same though. People enjoy a line of Coke but is it good? No.

I do think Rowan could have done an excellent obit.

Or Justine, maybe in conjunction with a journalist she may know.

Why not an actual political journalist? You know, those people who have made it their life's work? Or a friend of his?

"There are some extremely left wing posters on mumsnet who seem to think there is something wrong with someone on the right writing about someone on the left."

This comment totally misses the point of this thread. Completely and utterly.

I agree - I would have had no problem with a serious Tory politician (such as Widdecombe) writing about Tony Benn. There was also nothing wrong with Mensch's piece in itself - I thought it was sincere and respectful. The fault here is MN's, for selecting someone of insufficient stature or relevance. I hope they can rectify this to give Benn the coverage he deserves on the site.

I'd really like to read Anne Widdecombe's take on him. I'm sure it would be very interesting.

There are some extremely left wing posters on mumsnet who seem to think there is something wrong with someone on the right writing about someone on the left.

Well, there may well be, Laura, but none of them have posted on this thread, have they?

The issue with this thread is not that Mensch is a Tory, but that MNHQ seems to believe that she is the most appropriate person they can think of to address their community on the death of Tony Benn.

An MP for approx 7 minutes, who never met the man, didn't even know he had died, and whose previous journalistic credentials include writing chicklit novels and a beauty column for a newspaper.

But MN thinks that's all we can handle, so that's what we get.

Lets break it down shall we?

Paragraph 1

'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.'

So this is Louise telling us she gets her news from a parenting forum and is writing about somebody she 'never actually met'. Ok - so that established this as cutting edge comment doesn't it

Paragraph 2

'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.'

No problem with the first two sentences. I think Louise will find it was his love of democracy that caused him to fight incredibly hard to surrender his title. You can argue he could have represented socialist issues in the House of Lords, like other Labour peers. Benn wanted to be the people's elected representative and serve at the highest level with an electoral mandate. The nobility of the family name bit is bollocks. The Benns aren't the Churchills or the Howards. It's a perfectly good family name. It's not a name which has been prominent over centuries.

Paragraph 3

'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.'

This is just fluffy nonsense. So TB drank tea and smoked a pipe did he? Wow, Louise, blow our socks off with that revelation why don't you? Never regretted walking away from the title? He FOUGHT incredibly hard to renounce. Of course he didn't regret it.

Paragraph 4

'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.'

Indeed political enmity may not be personal, that's quite right though hardly a shattering revelation. What is personal though is an obituary - which is what Louise is supposed to be writing. Personal to the person who has died. Buggered if I know then why Louise's experience of kind notes gets in here. Was one from TB? Nope don't think so. Louise it's not all about you.

Paragraph 5 and 6

'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." '

Ok it's not about MT either. That's a story about her not TB. The snide little comment about his mother and TB as a feminist I have already commented on. What's the worst way of a feminist upbringing showing Louise? Do share? Both Margaret Benn and Caroline Benn showed how family life and professional and public fulfilment may be combined. Do their ghosts make Louise uneasy?

Paragraph 7

'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.” '

Ok so it's only the MPs and commentators who realise this is it? What a dim comment. TB's death is a national moment and the nation at large should be reflecting (and is) on who he was and what he meant. Louise certainly could do with learning humility though I agree. The nobleman play on words is a Daily Mail trick. That's what the right wing have done throughout TB's career - sought to undermine his message by implying he's a toff in disguise. They do the same with Miliband and every Labour politician unless they were born and bred a miner in which case they hint at communism. Why do you think we hear so much about Ed Balls piano playing and indeed Tony Blair's penchant for Tuscany.

Lazy writing with a rightwing agenda from somebody who never met him and has no point in common with him is no way to eulogise a great man.

Absolutely northern!
I cannot fathom what MNHQ were thinking, despite their comments.

Great post, Northern.

Laura - you are being, I believe, deliberately obtuse in your post.

Northern- brilliant post

Spot on, Northern.

Oh ok Laura Louise what a fabbo blog post.
insert eye roll smiley which sadly don't exist here

just to lower the tone - I'd always thought was rolling its eyes, no?

It's 'sceptical'

Possibly best translated as WTF. May or may not involve eye rolling.

Yeah and the app mixes up that one and the sad face at the most inappropriate times...