The changing name of
the former secretary
of state for energy
from Anthony Wedgwood
Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate to plain Tony
Benn, always raised a few eyebrows.
Attempting
to present himself as a working-class warrior
and not a son of privelege could tend to
detract from something that
never changed:
his rapier-like
wit.
He once remarked "Clement Attlee had as
much charisma as a
mouse. He was absolutely
mono-syllabic. People
say conversation is
supposed to be like
a game of tennis, but with
Attlee it was like
tossing biscuits to a dog."
It has been said of Tony Benn that he made
enemies and kept enemies. Not so with
the
Tory Party. His extreme left-wing views
were
a factor in Margaret Thatcher's victory at the
1979 general election and in the eighteen
years
of Labour opposition that followed.
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