Tony Benn
Following his World War II service as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, Tony Benn worked briefly as a BBC Radio producer. He was unexpectedly selected to follow Stafford Cripps as Labour candidate for Bristol South East and won the seat in a by-election on 30 November 1950 after Cripps stood down for ill health.
In the 1960s government of Harold Wilson he became Postmaster General; during his time in that position he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, the creation of the Postal Bus Service and the introduction of the UK's first commemorative postage stamps.
By the end of the 1970s Tony had migrated to the left-wing of the Labour Party. He was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists and a survey of Labour Conference delegates of 1978 found that by large margins they supported him for the leadership and many Bennite policies.
In the first Gulf War he was active in the anti-war movement and visited Baghdad to persuade Saddam Hussein to release the hostages who had been captured. He was also one of the very few MPs to oppose the Kosovo War.
He has published many books, including since 1987 successive volumes of his Diaries.
In 2001 he retired from Parliament but remains involved in politics. He claimed that his retirement allowed him to "devote more time to politics", suggesting that for him 'real politics' is about struggle rather than parliamentary procedure. He became a leading figure of the British opposition to the War on Iraq, and in February 2003 he travelled to Baghdad to again meet (and interview) Saddam Hussein. He also spoke out against the Iraq war at the February 2003 protest in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition and in February 2004 he was elected as their first President.
He has toured with a one-man stage show, and also appears regularly in a two-man show with folk singer Roy Bailey. In 2003 his show with Bailey was voted Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. On June 21, 2005 Tony presented a show on democracy as part of the Channel 5 series 'Big Ideas That Changed The World', with a left wing view of democracy as the means to pass power from the 'wallet to the ballot'. In September 2006, Tony joined the "Time to Go" Demonstration in Manchester the day before the final Labour Conference under Tony Blair started; aiming to persuade the Labour Government to withdraw troops from Iraq, to not attack Iran and to not replace Trident. In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our time".
He continues to campaign for Stop the War with the new labour leadership of Gordon Brown and addressed the last major demonstration to parliament on Monday 8 October this year.
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Introduction:
Tony Benn
Singers
Rosemary Ashe
Sally Burgess
Charlie Dore
Johnnie Fiori
Fiona MacDonald
The Manchester
Lesbian & Gay Chorus
Nasrin Parvaz
Annette Reis-Dunne
Andrea Roberts
Peter Straker
Writers
Stella Duffy
Leslie Forbes
David Harsent
Ben Mellor
Shelley Silas
Lemn Sissay
Actors
Janie Dee
Sam Ellis
John Guerrasio
Loveday Smith
Will Strange
Two’s Company
Rupert Wickham
Dan Willis
Chris and Olly
Musicians
Julian Littman (MD)
Neal Thornton
Directors
London: Caroline Clegg
Nepal: Hazel Roy
Special Guests
Mende Nazer
Julie Nicholson
Trafalgar Studios
www.feelgoodtheatre.co.uk
Event sponsors & supporters:
The Stage Door Foundation
Dave Kirkwood Studio
J. S. Dutton
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