Tony Benn: He Dared to be a Daniel

Tony Benn (1925-2014) died this week.



An amazing man. Someone who stuck by his beliefs throughout
his life. Even if you disagreed with him, you had to admire his courage, persistence
and lack of compromise.



In 2002 he came to Peterborough for his ‘An Audience With’
tour. A packed theatre sat for two hours with him chatting and answering
questions, accompanied only by his beloved flask of tea. (Earlier tours also
included his pipe, but health and safety regulations put paid to that!) It was
one of my political highlights. I was glad to be there. As Benn put it, the
tour ‘reignites the public meeting,
uninterrupted by Jeremy Paxman or John Humphrys’!



His autobiography is called ‘Dare to be a Daniel’. It’s a
reference to a Salvation Army hymn of the same name, sung to him by his father.
His parents appeared to have had a stronger Christian faith than he, but in
amongst the ‘honest doubts’ of his first chapter in the book, there is a clear
belief too.  Not a traditional Christian one,
but as you read the pages, you see the passion:



Dare to be a Daniel

Dare to stand alone

Dare to have a purpose firm

Dare to make it known.

 

He surely did that. He dared to make his views and purpose
known. An honest politician- a phrase that is not always a juxtaposition of
opposites!

 

In the end, he left parliament after fifty years ‘to devote
more time to politics’! He considered politicians as either signposts or
weathercocks. The first, clear in their views. The second awaiting the
prevailing political winds before deciding. Tony Benn was a great example of
the former. I wish there were more. A rare breed.

 

History will show he was not always right. But he dared to
have a purpose. And he dared to stand alone.