Review of The Most Dangerous Man in Britain?: The Political Writing by Tony Benn (Verso Books, 2025)
When Tony Benn died in 2014, it prompted some of the most condescending obituaries in modern British political history. While the odd detractor, still sore that Benn ever had the temerity to challenge our unimpeachable status quo, dutifully stuck the boot in, the tone of most commentary was gentle condescension, superficially respectful in form but slyly dismissive in substance.
We were treated to a picture of Benn in his familiar guise as a tea-supping, pipe-puffing national treasure, gentlemanly almost to a fault, but just too otherworldly to be any sort of success in practical politics. It fell to Leo Panitch — author, with Colin Leys, of the best history of what they call the “Labour new left” of the 1970s and ’80s — to articulate Benn’s real significance as a principled and visionary socialist who upended traditional conceptions of what a parliamentary politician might be.
Benn learned through his experience of high office the limitations of liberal-democratic institutions and advocated for radical constitutional reforms to make the state accountable to its citizens. He remained steadfast in his socialist convictions as the Labour Party lurched ever further rightward. In his later years, he served as a bridge between generations, connecting the struggles of the past with contemporary movements for justice.
Benn was a figure who confounded expectations and refused to be constrained by prevailing political wisdom. As Panitch observed, Benn saw himself primarily as an educator, awakening working people to their own latent potential and advocating for a more democratic and equitable…
Auteur: Tom Blackburn
