Why Tony never won the Oscar

First appeared: Evening Star, Ipswich, October 29, 2004

An Evening with Tony Benn
Felixstowe Spa Pavilion

IT'S just two weeks since Tony Benn's autobiography, Dare To Be A Daniel, was published, so an evening with him in the theatre was bound to be a book-selling event, right? Wrong.

As the grandest old man of British politics settled in his armchair with his pipe and his cough mixture ("This could be an evening with Tony Benylin") he made it quite clear: "This is going to be a public meeting."

And so it was - a number of good laughs, many excellent wisecracks, but mostly good serious talk about good serious issues.

In 40 minutes of monologue he raced at breakneck pace through more real politics than New Labour's spin-doctors could spin in another seven years of power. Then it was over to questions from the floor - serious thought, serious exchange of views.

The kind of committed public meeting Tony would love to see back in the political process. Real discussion of the things that matter. Democracy - which he still believes in passionately despite all his examples of how it is abused, corrupted and avoided - in action.

Of course, Tony was among friends. It's unlikely anyone present disagreed with his views on Iraq , Tony Blair or George W Bush, student loans or pensioners' rights.

For the record:

• on Iraq - the supposed weapons of mass destruction and supposed link to Al-Qaeda were stories invented to justify a war Bush was intent on fighting from the day he was elected;
• on Blair - "It's got the point where if he said he apologised, I wouldn't believe him";
• on Bush - "I'm a lifelong teetotaller, but if he loses next week I'll have a sip of beer".

The one thing that was not mentioned in two hours was the book. There was not even much about his life, except in this one very important sense - meetings like this, thinking and talking about the things that matter in society, have been his life.

Despite his acute awareness of the world's ills, Tony Benn is an optimist - enough of an optimist to believe the Labour Party can be reclaimed from the right-wing cabal currently ruling through it.

The sad thing for the party, and the country, is that at 79 he cannot be its future.

He is still - as he has always been - more intelligent, more caring, more decent, and simply nicer, than those in power.

The one question he dodged, politician-like, was why he had never made prime minister. But he had already, obliquely, provided the answer.

"We mustn't allow politics to be all about who's going to win the Oscar. It should be all about the policies, not the personalities."

On either count, or both, I'd vote for Tony Benn today. But I can't. As he says, he's retired to give more time to politics.