Book description
When Tony Benn left Parliament after 51 years he quoted his wife
Caroline's remark that now he would have 'more time for politics'. And
so this has proved: in the first seven years of this century he has
helped reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass
campaigns and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral
and political issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he
has been keeping his diaries.
Commenting on the demise of the New Labour project from the
re-election of Tony Blair in 2001 to the ultimate foreign policy
disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, he gives other prescient accounts
of the government's by-passing of Cabinet, parliament and the party,
of the 'war on terror', the debate about Islam, globalisation and the
changes in British society. Although he is no longer in power or in
parliament, Tony Benn remains a figure of enormous respect whose
direct views, honestly expressed, have often awakened the national
conscience. His latest Diaries, human and challenging in turn, are an
enthralling read.
Tony Benn entered the Commons in 1950 and with Ted Heath held the
record for post-war service as an MP. He has held four cabinet posts and
has twice contended the leadership of the Labour Party, of which he has
also been chairman. His many books include seven individual volumes of
diaries:
Years of Hope
1940-62
,
Out of the Wilderness
1963-67
,
Office Without Power
1968-72
,
Against the Tide
1973-76
,
Conflicts of Interest
1977-1980
,
The End of an Era
1980-1990
, a single volume condensation,
The Benn Diaries 1940-1990
, and
Free At Last! 1991-2001
.
