Left Wing Rebel Tony Benn on Britain Before and After Thatcher - Extended Interview (1989)

On 27 September 1989, hero of the left Anthony Wedgwood Benn - more commonly known as Tony Benn - was interviewed by ITN's Michael Brunson about the release of the third instalment of his political diaries, Against the Tide: Diaries, 1973-76. As well as discussing the history contained within the diaries, Benn explained the uniquely meticulous record-keeping system which he had developed throughout his political career and which had assisted him in assembling his diaries for publication. Having started a diary as a boy in the Second World War, the socialist stalwart kept up and expanded the practice over the following decades, building in the process an in-depth multi-media archive charting British political history in his lifetime. The diairies offered particular insight into the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, in which Benn served in various Cabinet posts. Benn, a mentor to future leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, argued that the latest volume, which covered the IMF crisis faced by the Labour government in 1976, served to counter the "myth" that militant trade unions were responsible for the collapse of the Labour Government and the so-called Winter of Discontent that preceded the election of Margaret Thatcher. Moreover, Benn argued that the state of Britain after a decade of Thatcherism proved that free market economics had created discontents of its own.
#TonyBenn #MargaretThatcher #Socialist #Socialism #Labour #LabourParty #Conservative #UKPolitics #PoliticalHistory #Thatcherism #JeremyCorbyn #Corbyn
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[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

I used to a fella who said "When I left this country in 1976, everyone looked for one another. When I come back in 1992, no one give a f***"

[@robertmillichamp7666]

Online English, is that a learning tool? I'm unsure of what you are saying, did the Fella mean it was nicer in 1976?.......so you weren't around then.

[@peterlorimer3552]

Tony Benn the best priminister we never had.

[@merseybeat1963]

You mean Enoch Powell..

[@wilsonfisk6626]

​@@merseybeat1963 Neil kinnock

[@Talleyrand1789]

@@wilsonfisk6626You can’t be serious lol

[@wilsonfisk6626]

@Talleyrand1789 I was joking lol

[@l1l9cam9ervans]

Couldn't agree more!

[@Londonechoes]

Two different countries!

[@jamesgale2147]

Denis Healy called him 'silver tongued'. What a memory to have, and many thanks for posting this, when politicians were concerned with politics and the common good, were reasoned thoughtful but above all people of integrity. What a contrast to the Westminster of today ; a flock of headless barn yard fowl.

[@zeddeka]

Denis Healey also called him many other things, including a "feudal socialist", which is absolutely true. Nobody has ever done so much damage to the labour party as Tony Benn.

[@celtspeaksgoth7251]

He was a Brexiteer. Like Thatcher, he had great respect for parliament and its history

[@Tombombadil2]

You tube removed my comment...I was pointing you to a wonderful speech he made to the Oxford union detailing why the EU was anti democratic ..seems that you won't find that speech here anymore as it has had the same treatment as my comment .😂😂😂

[@Bosspigeon230]

He never cared about it's democratic nature, he thought it was a capitalist union. Which given its main aim was the common market he's not wrong. Benn uses the word Democratic in the way the Eastern European Nations used the word while Communist.

[@Tombombadil2]

@@Bosspigeon230 i don't fully agree with you ,he outlines in the speech I mention very clearly what democracy was and why the union was undemocratic . I urge you to seek it out.✌️❤️

[@winstonsmith9424]

@@Tombombadil2 very good comment thank you

[@jackiechan8840]

Love this archive stuff. Is it all from video tapes in storage?

[@deanedge5988]

Wonderful historical document. Also a compelling illustration of how being on "the spectrum" is a common characteristic of the successful intellectual politician; and he was and is successful.

[@RobinKoenig1917]

I'm sorry, Tony Benn was autistic?

[@MrNinjaFish]

Nah Tony wasn't on the spectrum - his intellect was probably genetic and you have to be very sociable to get on in politics. Generally people were more intelligent back then. As for Enoch Powell he certainly had autistic traits but society was different back during his time in politics.

[@deanedge5988]

@@MrNinjaFish I don't mean it as an insult but as an explanation. If you actually read the dairies or other accounts of his actual behaviour - remarkable even admirable man that he was - almost no other conclusion is reasonable; he was very like another autistic aristocrats son - Bertrand Russell.

[@elliotlambert3817]

Can you imagine an MP today doing anything as useful as this massive collection of political facts. Todays politicians only knows in any depth his/her salary and conditions.

[@ramruma6330]

Interesting but Mrs Thatcher is barely mentioned in passing so the title is misleading.

[@davidevans3227]

thankyou for sharing this 🙂 x

[@fanfayer]

I have watched him in parliamentary debates and his interview with Ali G is hilarious 😂 .You don't have to agree with him but his integrity shines bright .

[@Psylenoz]

Its our history!

[@kennethmarshall306]

He was vilified and ridiculed by the media in the same way 1:05 Corbyn was- if not more so.

[@kennethmarshall306]

@simonengland6448 It has nothing to do with deserving it. The threat of a significant redistribution of wealth is what the money men hate more than anything. That’s when you really see what media bias means

[@Tombombadil2]

Corbyn isn't a democrat that's why.

[@kennethmarshall306]

@simonengland6448 “ He…seeks power in order to wield it“. That’s ironic, considering his Blairite opponents accused him of indulging in protest politics with no real desire for power.

[@Tombombadil2]

People forget the main thing this man was...a true democrat.

[@ponderingspirit]

He's so eloquent

[@simonmhood69]

Only politician I ever respected

[@petergates7939]

He was anti EU and anti Globalist A proper grown up parliamentarian and patriot

[@Tombombadil2]

There used to be a video from a speech he made at the Oxford union outlining exactly why the EU was anti democratic..this platform have removed the original, you can only find a repeat version of the speech done when he was a dibbling old man.

[@conors4430]

The difference is he was coming at it from my left-wing perspective. Near liberal free market capitalism promotes globalism, that’s the weird thing about people who have a problem with all of this, I think the answer to it is more capitalism, Companies love to be able to bounce from country to country, playing workers OFF, which is why they need orders that can be easily moved in between, it helps lower the wages, and it helps lower the working conditions.

[@callumclark4021]

Tony Benn's office of papers would all be on a hard drive on a laptop now 🤣 a glimpse into an pre-digital office!

[@simonmhood69]

Kaufman is old school. Manchester

[@simonmhood69]

Keir starmer and Co is a fkn disgrace.

[@johntomlinson6849]

"I suggested the BBC take over The Times". Hmm, I'd forgotten how "strange" some of this man's ideas were....

[@LeftWinger9]

Couldn't have done any worse than that cancer. Murdoch.

[@ramruma6330]

Remember The Times was not published for more than a year so it is not quite as absurd as it sounds. It does show the importance of The Times to the Establishment, of which Benn was at the heart. Eventually The Times would be sold to Rupert Murdoch.

[@LaraGrenfell-c8g]

Most honestly at first sight I most instantly fall for you ! You are handsome ,very ! Your voice an absolute delight ! I have been on Edward Heaths Morning Cloud have you ? Arundells ,a guest as well and the House of Parliament a frequent Guest in Commons and frequent speaker of past days in the House of Lords ! Anyway say hello to your colleagues especially Major and These time and of course remember my Foreign Minister honorary daddy Sir Anthony Eden ,My very best love to all of You ! Love and my sincerest best and warmest wishes from sunny San Diego California USA America's finest city, Lara V.Grenfell F.M. proudly representing The United States and Great Britain and the Commonwealth and all of Western Civilisation.

[@LaraGrenfell-c8g]

These time should read Heseltine.

[@NicholasKinich]

1978

[@NicholasKinich]

Real labour/1967/1974

[@pendorran]

One of the richest MPs in the House. Never experienced hardship as anything but theory.

[@LeftWinger9]

@pendorran Yep Thatcher was skint and really struggled during the cost of living crisis 🙄🙄🙄🙄 doesn't matter how rich he was, he empathised with and voted in the interests of the poor and oppressed. Proved more so by him being an elected politician when he could have picked an easy life at home away from. The spotlight.. Best pm we never had.

[@Comfortzone99]

@@LeftWinger9 Thatcher gave the working class the chance to own their own home at a massive discount . Anthony Viscount Wedgewood.Benn was just an old windbag pretender with a cloth cap and mug prop., never left any working-class cause anything in his will. About the only thing he ever done as a politician was criminalize the pirate pop radio stations in the North Sea ....while he waxed lyrical in public about 'democracy'.

[@harmlessdrudge]

​@@LeftWinger9 Thatcher came from a much humbler background than Benn.

[@danielr4774]

@@harmlessdrudge Thatcher married a millionaire who subsidized her career. Gave her the financial stability to rise the ranks.

[@kennethmarshall306]

And if he was poor he would have been accused of having the politics of envy

[@heartofoak45]

Full of his own self-importance which didn't amount to much.

[@ktheodor3968]

Tony Benn, what a dinosaur. Looks like Mrs T did have the last laugh after all. In 2019, plenty of northern and midlands English constituencies (which hadn't done before) voted passionately for that entertainer 'BoJo' and his Tory party. BoJo being Mrs T's heir and successor. Not to mention how many northerners and midlanders think the world of Dick Tice and Nigel Farage and what they have to say. So yes, Mrs T did have the last laugh and this is always the best one.

[@briandelaney9710]

Those Northern constituencies are all going back to Labour in a few months

[@stumagoo2395]

Benn believed more in Britain than common market loving Margaret with her1975 European nations flag sweater. Thatcher sold off Britains crown jewels on the cheap to the globalists and now we've nothing left. Benn was a decent man and even refused to give any tv interviews in response to Thatcher's death,.feeling it was the wrong time and place to discuss their political differences. Thatcher also respected her political opponents and attended the funerals of arch political enemies like Erik Heffer, as did Benn with Enoch Powell.

[@robertmillichamp7666]

Oh dear, you ever heard of history? protest votes, Farage would not even be considered a fossil, Mrs T is dead and buried and I bet you posses a brown shirt, you deliberate small englander.

[@yusufdin2954]

He said 1979 yet the video title says '¹1989'