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.

it's the choice of you as someone to write this piece. Because you are a political lightweight by comparison with Tony Benn

But this is not the only possible piece and MNHQ asked Louise to do it and she did not refuse to do it. She was glad to do it because she respected Tony Benn and wanted to express that "Tony Benn represented something truly valuable in the world".

MNHQ can ask other people too. If you want to hear what Russell Brand has to say, they can ask him too. But that is no reason to call what Louise had to say "shoddy" or "lightweight". Many MNers have paid their respects to Tony Benn and not one of them was "shoddy" and nor are Louise's words.

Because you are a political lightweight by comparison with Tony Benn

Even Ed Miliband, and certainly David Miliband, are "political lightweights" compared to Tony Benn. This is not a contest about who measures up to Tony Benn, it is about paying respect to a great political figure.

there are far better qualified, current politicians who could have been asked to do this

No one has to be "qualified" to pay respect. Louise was asked to do so and she wrote a tribute to Tony Benn. If MNHQ want to ask other politicians to do so, then they can do that too.

Claig - I think a lot of people were objecting because she didn't actually know TB - a blog would have been better written by someone who did.

But claig, the fact remains that Ms Mensch was the first 'go to' politician by MNHQ. And that's the issue. Of all the politicians that MN have interacted with/worked with/spoken with over the years, why this one?

It IS a shoddy piece of writing. It has about three genuine sentences praising Benn. The rest is either all about Louise, all about Thatcher, plain embarrassing or fluff.

It's a bad piece of writing from somebody who has a right wing agenda and therefore has an interest in diminishing Tony Benn. It is possible to write an honest eulogy for someone you profoundly disagree with but it's not easy to make it about them and not you. Louise doesn't have the skills.

But claig, the fact remains that Ms Mensch was the first 'go to' politician by MNHQ. And that's the issue. Of all the politicians that MN have interacted with/worked with/spoken with over the years, why this one?

This, this, this and this. It is MN that most of the posters on this thread have the real beef with, not Mensch herself. She is an irrelevance to most of us, that's the whole bloody point.

Although, the fact that her response to our criticisms of her as a lightweight has been to come on here and start yelling about her A Levels has brought a whole new dimension of surrealism to the thread so, thanks for that Louise

'Of all the politicians that MN have interacted with/worked with/spoken with over the years, why this one?'

Why not?

Everyone knows that MN is left wing, so to show that Tony Benn was respected across all parties, they asked a famous ex-Tory MP, who blogs and who is known by everyone. How many other women Tory MPs can the same be said of?

'It's a bad piece of writing from somebody who has a right wing agenda and therefore has an interest in diminishing Tony Benn.'

No, this is uncharitable. It is not a bad piece of writing because it comes from the heart and it is real. Louise was on the progressive side of Tory politics, as far as I could make out. She is not trying to diminish Tony Benn. She has not said a bad word about him. If you want to hear people who do diminish Tony Benn, then listen to the interviews of some of his ex-Labour colleagues during the late seventies.

Oh come on, she's hardly a "famous ex-Tory MP". She's famous for being in Parliament for such a short space of time, being a good looking (albeit cosmetically enhanced) Tory Babe, and for writing Chick Lit. She's hardly Shirley Williams turned Doris Lessing, is she?

You can diminish somebody without saying 'a bad word'. Calling them a National Treasure for a start. National Treasures aren't radical are they? National Treasures aren't dangerous. National Treasures are harmless old folk. Benn repeatedly asserts in his diaries that he was worried he would be seen as a lovely old man. He was right of course.
Politicians have two lives - their personal life and how they are and their political life and the legacy from that. Louise should bloody well know that. In eulogy the two usually get combined with results which inevitably diminish the latter.

Shirley Williams would have been another good choice and one certainly not from Benn's political viewpoint. But I guess HQ don't have her e-mail address.

If that's good writing your standards are pretty low.

Louise is young, Shirley is old. Louise is on twitter, she makes the papers, whereas Shirley rarely does.

If you listen to Shirley's views about Tony Benn, you will see that they are less positive than Louise's. I think that left wing MN wanted a positive view of Tony Benn from a right wing former MP, not a negative view from a former left wing MP.

Why go for former MP? Why not ask Teresa May? Or if you wanted a former MP, Ann Widdecombe?

Claig - so you admire LauraBridges for engaging with ideas, do you? So you haven't read her disgusting attacks about Bob Crow and his being fat. Check it out.

It is a nonsense to say that Louise Mensch is known by everyone.

It is to my great shame that I am more aware of her than of many other dedicated, hard-working MP's who were actually fairly chosen and elected and who then committed their lives to politics.

AFAIK she was an MP for about 2 yrs and a minor sleb.

Most of my peers are, at best, only very dimly aware of her.

How she was selected to asked comment is to Mumsnet's great discredit. I feel sure it was to drive traffic to the site and that is why I question if Katie Hopkins was too busy.

Mensch is at least always good value...the A-level stuff was gold...Mumsnet deserve a star for that

Or if you wanted another Tory female self publicist, how about Nadine Dorries?

Ronald - yes, all the "I am so extremely considerably clever than yowwww!"

"Calling them a National Treasure for a start. National Treasures aren't radical are they? National Treasures aren't dangerous. National Treasures are harmless old folk"

But Tony Benn, himself, said the same.

'I’m a national treasure now I’m harmless'

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/5509231/Trevor-Kavanagh-looks-at-career-of-Tony-Benn.html

I am right wing, Louise is right wing (but much more progressive than me).

The reason that I like Benn and I like Crow and I don't like David Miliband, is because Benn and Crow were authentic. They were real, they meant what they said, they had beliefs and they defended them. They had principles. I didn't agree with many of their ideas, but I would defend to the death their right to hold them, because I want opposition, any opposition, real opposition. I want them to be beastly to the Tories over ideas, not personally.

I think that is also why Louise admired Benn, because of his authenticity and his attachment to ideas, ideals and principles, above petty personal confrontation.

We want ideas, opinions and beliefs, not ill-will and lack of generosity of spirit. That is what made Benn special, that is what Louise and the public admires and that is what has been lacking from this thread.

Nadine Dorries said this

Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries, said: “Only a few months ago, Tony and I spoke to two thousand sixth formers at a conference in London.
“Tony was the last speaker of the day and came on after me. He was doddery, and my researcher had to help him to reach the stage wings as he waited for me to finish and his turn to speak.
“The conference organisers told me the conference had run for many years and Tony had never missed it, not once.”
She continued: “We had chatted in the green room and, as always, his mind was razor sharp. He was a gentleman who not only respected but enjoyed an alternative point of view.
“As he walked into the stage the auditorium erupted. Tony was a legend. Facing an audience of young people with differing political views they knew he was special and they loved him.”

Louise - it is a crappy blog, and has been neatly analysed as to why much further up. It was probably crappy because 1. you just aren't very good and 2. you know little about your subject other than the platitudinous and already-acknowledged particulars about TB which were nothing to do with his politics. (tea, politeness etc).

This may be now 'after the mayor's show, but the error lay with HQ for even asking you to do this, something which numerous others would have been better placed to do. Naturally as a media/politico type you must have thought you were onto an easy winner. But you weren't.

One big lesson for you - MN regulars have much higher bar than your tweeting buddies have.

(and well done to LRD for being lucid at 2am)

*"Calling them a National Treasure for a start. National Treasures aren't radical are they? National Treasures aren't dangerous. National Treasures are harmless old folk"

But Tony Benn, himself, said the same.

'I’m a national treasure now I’m harmless'*

Oh god, claig

Benn didn't think that was a good thing!

'Benn didn't think that was a good thing!'

But it was what happened. Benn didn't think that Thatcher was a good thing, but it was what happened, she became the longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th Century.

What Benn thought and what happened were often opposed. He got lots of things wrong. But we still respect him because he was authentic, he was consistent, he didn't let the fact that he was wrong put him off. He kept on banging on, and that is why we love him and say that he was a national treasure. We don't care if someone is right or wrong as long as they are real and live from the heart. It doesn't matter if they disagree with us, we still admire and respect them.

And Louise's tribute was also from the heart and that is why I respect it.

My word, with all the Oxbridge degrees being bandied about on here, I feel barely qualified to contribute .

Just in case it needs saying again (because it doesn't seem to be going in) the objections to this whole sorry episode are 1. why is LM the go-to ex politican of choice on Mumsnet? She is a guest blogger and we often get little puffs of style and beauty stuff from her. Is it because she is young and attractive and fond of Twitter? well, that's all a bit fluffy isn't it? Is it because we are wimmin and are therefore expected to like that kind of stuff?

1. the talk threads started on TB by Mumsnetters themselves are more interesting and informative than anything an individual politician could contribute - so why do we need a guest post at all? We can read countless obituaries and other material about Tony Benn online, or even in today's Sunday papers. We don't need a guest to come and opine about him ... this isn't a magazine or a newspaper.

And the thing about "tea drinking" is noteworthy. It made him special, it made him eccentric, it made him human. We all remember it and all think about it, because it is a small human thing that seems to be about so little, but really says so much.

It is one of the first things we think about when we think about Tony Benn. It remains in our memories because it shows his passion, his humanity. We never forget how he told us in an interview how he drinks a mug of tea every hour throughout the whole day.

It makes him unique, eccentric and real. Little things count as well as lofty ideas and Tony Benn cared about them both.

You're just being absolutely ridiculous now. I can assure you that a cup of tea is not the first thing I think of when I think of Tony Benn.