‘You know I was once called the most dangerous man in Britain?’ says Tony Benn with a sparkle in his eye. ‘Now I’m in danger of becoming a national treasure.’
At 85 years old, the history of Tony Benn is the history of 20th century Britain. When he was born, the sun hadn’t set on the British Empire and women couldn’t vote until 30. The son of a member of parliament, he remembers pushing leaflets through letterboxes in the 1930s Depression. He lost his 22 year-old brother in the Second World War, survived the Blitz and witnessed the founding of the National Health Service. He became a Labour MP in 1950, served in the Cabinet in the 1970s and campaigned hard against Thatcher in the 1980s. When he finally resigned in 2001, after 52 years in parliament, he said he was quitting to devote ‘more time to politics’.
