Dare to Be a Daniel
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We must have stronger environmental laws. Keir Hardie was a passionate environmentalist, who complained about the rain forests in the United States being cut down. He was also a great believer in animal rights. On one occasion, Hardie was followed home from the House of Commons by a journalist from the Daily Mail, who hoped to find out to whom he talked in the street – no doubt, in an attempt to uncover some scandal. The journalist said that Hardie patted all the horses that he saw in the street. Being a miner, Hardie appreciated the value of the pit pony.
We need to end the arms trade, which is far more serious than the drugs trade that receives so much attention. The arms trade allows arms manufacturers to arm both sides in a conflict. Then, when those arms are used, the world demands a ceasefire. I sometimes wonder whether the idea is to discover which arms work best so that more can be sold afterwards, as we saw in the case of the Exocet that sank HMS Sheffield during the Falklands War.
Finally, we should try to build the United Nations as an embryonic, democratic institution, in accordance with the aspirations of the Chartists, who wanted to establish democratic government in Britain. If we are to have a global system, it must be a worldwide system, but it must be based on democratic accountability. My conviction is that the UN is being bypassed by NATO, whereas the UN should have responsibility, through the General Assembly, for controlling multinationals, which cannot be disciplined in any other way. The World Trade Organisation and the IMF should also be accountable to the United Nations General Assembly. That would be true internationalism rather than globalisation.
Those are my convictions. I am a socialist and I became a socialist through experience. After fifty years in the House and many years as a minister, I realise the way in which power is exercised to shape our society. As I leave the House of Commons and approach a new political life at the end of this Parliament, I shall want to put those arguments to the electors as a non-candidate when the election comes, because I honestly believe that the ideas have much more support than the British establishment, any government or the House yet realises.
All progressive change has come from underneath, and it might be worth remembering that there is a different tradition from those ideas with which we are presented every day. If we remember that, we might make more progress in winning public support for what needs to be done.
Great grandfather, the Rev. Julius Benn, minister of the Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney, murdered by his son, William, during a bout of insanity
Laying the tracks for the LCC’s electric trams on Victoria Embankment.
Grandfather John Benn, as Chairman of the LCC, reviews the London Fire Brigade, with its horse-drawn engines in 1904.
John Benn, 1904 (painted by Sir William Orpen).
Father, then Secretary of State for Air, in Alexandria, 1946, during the negotiations for a revision of the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty.
Great grandfather Peter Eadie as Provost of Paisley, 1905.
I met David Lloyd George in 1937 knowing that Father didn’t trust him and had left the Liberal Party when Lloyd George became leader.
Grandfather Holmes, a teacher at Paisley Grammar School, who became MP for Govan.
Mother, as the first President, inaugurates the Congregational Federation, London, 1972.
Father (left) and Grandfather Holmes (top hat) on the terrace of the House of Commons, 1913.
The family home, 40 Grosvenor Road, later renamed 40 Millbank, where I was born. Sidney and Beatrice Webb lived next door and both houses were demolished to make way for Millbank Tower: Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution was drafted (by the Webbs) and repealed (by New Labour) on the very same site.
Benn Brothers, Ernest and William, by the seaside, 1926.
Stansgate then (1899)…
… and now (2004)
Michael’s 8th birthday: with the family on the beach at Stansgate, 1929, in front of the old Coastguard Hut.
My cousin, Margaret Rutherford: she made the part of Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit her own.
David, aged 8, in his busman’s uniform talking to a fellow driver at Victoria Station, 1936.
Me leaving for Gladstone’s School, aged 11.
Oswald ‘Tom’ Mosley. I saw Mosley twice: once in 1928 when he was a Labour MP and seven years later as the leader of the British Union of Fascists marching near Parliament Square.
As a keen member of the 52nd Westminster Troop.
Scout Camp, Isle of Mull, 1939.
Nurse Olive Winch caring for David during his convalescence, March 1938.
Grandfather and Grandmother Holmes with David who was convalescing at Bexhill
Standing for Parliament, Victoria Tower Garden, June 1931.
Me, aged 7, checkmating Uncle Ernest, 58, in the garden of Blunt House.
The Ragamuffins, Stansgate, Summer 1932 (Father behind David).
Mother with her ‘boys’ preparing for a sail on the River Blackwater, Essex, Summer 1934.
Mum and Dad at Stansgate, just before war was declared, August, 1939.
Olive Winch with Michael, 18, David, 11 and me, with Father sitting on the steps at Stansgate.
On active service: the family in London during the Blitz, 1940.
On May 10, 1941, 550 German bombers blasted London. Much of Westminster, including the school and House of Commons, was damaged or destroyed.
The last photograph taken of all the family together; Mike died on operations seven months later.
Me as a Private, Home Guard 1942; a Pilot Officer, RAF 1945; and a Sub-Lieutenant, Fleet Air Arm, 1945.
Flying solo in a Fairchild Cornell, Rhodesia, 1944.
Formation flying an Airspeed Oxford, Rhodesia, 1944.
On ‘Wings’ parade, Rhodesia, March 8, 1945.
My first meeting with Caroline (2 August, 1948): Tony Crosland offered to photograph a re-staging of the moment, a year later in 1949.
Sitting on the bench on which I proposed to Caroline in 1948 at Oxford; an event also photographed by Tony Crosland a year later.
Caroline with Tony Crosland, back from the ‘Paras’ and by 1949 a don at Trinity College, Oxford.
Mr and Mrs Benn-to-be at Stansgate, 1948, before Caroline returned to Cincinnati.
Caroline with our first car, a Morris Oxford, which lasted from 1928 to 1954. Its successor, another Morris Oxford, is still at Stansgate.
Caroline at her home, on the morning of our wedding, 17 June, 1949.
A few hours later, at the Church of the Advent in Cincinnati.
A beautiful bride.
Nurse Olive Winch (Buddy) with my first son, Stephen, July 1952.
Cincinnati, 1959, with Caroline’s parents (seated, below me), her brother Graydon (to left), and Caroline’s sister, Nance (to right). Our four children are seated among the grown-ups.
Sitting on our special bench, 1979
Caroline’s gravestone at Stansgate (bust by Ian Walters)
Speaker Martin conferring the ‘Freedom of the House’ at my retirement party, May 2001. Cake designed and commissioned by Ruth Winstone.
Benn family photo, Christmas 2003
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