20 March 2014, House of Commons, London, United Kingdom
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I hesitate to join in this business because in many ways I thought of Benn in the early Labour Party conferences as somebody that, unlike those of us that came from the Trade Union movement, as being part of the English radical dissenting left.
And he was at that time, a member of the NEC. And I think there were some significant changes that took place in the early seventies that changed his life. I may be wrong, but in early 1970, when I came to Parliament, we had about five or six years of constant demonstrations. And I used to go on these demos and there would be a gang of people from the TUC , and they were all recognisable and I'm telling Tony Ben all about this. And then I went to Pentonville, and there were six dockers in jail. And they were in jail because the Industrial Relations Act had been passed, passed! Got Royal Assent. And they had been on a picket line and they weren't supposed to be there.
So I went to Tower Hill with Eric Keffer and then Eric said, 'Are you coming back to Parliament, Dennis?' I said, 'no, this is the most important strike demo I've ever been on. The TUC have declared a day of action. Who knows what will happen at the end and off I went.'
I told Tony Benn all about it, and the following day he said to me, he says, 'they might have to get them out.' And I thought, well, it's asking a bit too much. But I did repeat it to Eric Effa and Stan Hall.
And I told him, I says, 'those six dockers will be in Strangers Bar by tomorrow night.' Thought I'd embellish it. And it worked. The official solicitor had to go to Pentonville jail and get them out. Is there any wonder that a dissenting English radical began to change his mind a little bit more? That's what really happened.
And then the miner's won in 72 and then they won again in 74 and we marched again and Tony said to me, as the Daily Express in Fleet Street were cheering from the windows. Yes, I said it right, the Daily Express! And Tony says, 'look at him at the Daily Express'. I said, yes, sadly it's not the owners, Tony!'
They were heady days. And then the Upper Clyde ship building, which was already mentioned, and so on and on it went. I mean, the truth was that those of us that were in the thick of it knew that it was having a major effect.
So let's just examine what we say about Tony.
He was shaped by events all his life. And he lived through it. He had an environment that was different to mine as a kid. But then, as I say, it all changed. And then I got elected to the national executive and he would come armed with amendments every month. I didn't have to bother writing amendments. They were already displayed and distributed to the six, seven or eight that might be allowed to read them.
He was a clever man as well. That's what he was. He was clever, Industrious. He got all the abilities. And I used to say to him, da de da de da, 'put that in the diary tonight!' And he actually did on one occasion. He got fed up of hearing me. He says, 'Skinner said, I've got to put this in the diary. '
So I had some enjoyable times with him. Most of the time, almost all of the time. He was very intelligent as well. He knew all about loads of subjects. I mean, he had a pager before MP's had them. He knew all about technology. Wasn't just Concord, yknow. He knew about it. He could probably have built it. He had a mobile phone before anybody else, and he's talking a language that I still don't understand. He could have built a computer. Yeah, he was very knowledgeable except he didn't know much about competitive sport.
I finished up at a Labour Party conference, I think it was out at Brighton. He says, you're late.' I said, 'I know I'm late, Tony there a reason'. He says, 'yes, it was a Tory mayor and you didn't want be here!' I said, well, that's part of it. I said, but the most important reason is that I'm watching Cram and Elliot on the telly in the mile of the century as they said. He says, 'Cram and Elliott, are they your delegates?' I said, 'Tony, Tony.' I says, 'do you know Ayrton Senna because I watched him win the formula 1!' 'Ayrton Senna, who''s he?'
I mean, you had to like somebody like that. Somebody that kept all the lists of all the results of everything. You didn't have to go far to find out. Now we look for things on the computer and I could ask Tony Benn and he would tell me.
I had a lot of enjoyable times with him. And he was industrious, he was clever. He was a great diarist. He had a lot of qualities that all of us in our hearts really admire, don't we? And wish we possessed them all.
And that's why I constantly wanted to see him in these last few years. I didn't see him on the last occasion. He went to Charing Cross Hospital, but I did last autumn, after the Labour Party Conference, when they told me he'd been in the hospital, out the hospital, back in again, I thought I'd better go. And the day after the conference, I went to find him. And in typical Tony Benn fashion, when I got there, room K was empty. You feared the worst and somebody quickly said, 'I saw somebody wheeling him down in a wheelchair.' And I got outside in a lovely little park in the autumn sunshine, just like his last book. And there he sat in the wheelchair with a fellow who helped him with some television business or other, smoking his pipe. And for three quarters of an hour, The Tony Benn I knew and will always admire was sat in that chair, lighting up three times, and we talked about the Labour Party conference. It's one that he'd not been able to attend. He couldn't go. He was in hospital. And so I told him the whole story about what happened.
It was a bit biased, but he didn't mind that. He expected it from me. Yes, that was the Tony Benn I knew. Wonderful man, and we should always remember that. And as for the longest suicide note in history, let me put that to bed as well. The left had lost control by 1983 on the executive, check the facts. The chair of the election committee was John Golden, you all remember him, don't you? The right had took control. There was only one member of the left on that election executive committee. Eric Effer, by virtue of being chairman. So I wanted to put that to bed.
But I also remember what my honourable friend from Chesterfield said about the election at Chesterfield. What a wonderful campaign. Literally thousands of people came, Labour party members, I've never seen so many at any by election. And it was great throughout that whole period of two or three weeks. And he said to me, when I met him in Chesterfield Market Square, 'how do you think things are going?' I said, 'Tony, we are going to win.' I said, 'we've got this army of people coming. We've nothing to worry about. it's going to be Elsie Tanner, Tony Booth, the Vicar of Aberdale Farm. They all came and I introduced them on the mini bus. And then he says, 'is there anything else I should do, Dennis?' I said, 'yes. Put a tie on.' I says, 'you're the ambassador of a market town.' And Tony Benn, the Tony Benn, turned up the following day in a tie!
How could I other than love the man