In the space of less than a week, two of the Left's staunchest eurosceptics have been called before their Maker. On the face of it, there wasn't much to commend the politics of either Tony Benn or Bob Crow apart from their euroscepticism. Tony Benn was the bête noire of the 1970s. I knew of people (including members of my own family) who regarded him as a Soviet fifth columnist who would turn this country into a Marxist republic given half a chance. I have some archive copies of The Free Nation, precursor of Freedom Today (which I currently edit) and "Wedgie Benn" gets a few mentions - none of them favourable, to put it mildly.
Bob Crow could claim to have inherited the coveted mantle of the Centre Right's bête noire - a man who kept a bust of Lenin in his office and named his dog after Fidel Castro. In other words, an unreconstructed Marxist and a throwback to the worst years of union militancy.
But much as I abhor the politics of these men (apart from their euroscepticism), there was a positive side to them which is distinctly lacking in much of Westminster these days - WYSYWIG. What you see is what you get. Bob Crow was a blunt man who fought hard for the members of his RMT union, but you knew where you stood with him. Likewise Tony Benn was an open man. For all one's disagreement with his ideology, at least he wasn't afraid to spell out where he was cming from. He had principles, however misguided they may have been.
In other words, both these men belonged to an age that is sadly vanishing - an age of trust and honesty. If there is one reason why many of us on the Centre Right who remember the 1970s now find ourselves feeling a sense of sadness over the loss of people like Tony Benn, it is because with hindsight, the real "nasties" turned out not to be the serious hard core socialists but the devious modernisers - Roy Jenkins, Tony Blair and so on. They came across as being "moderate", perhaps even "nice", but in reality did more to poison society than the likes of Tony Benn or Michael Foot. It is the modernisers who have brought trust in politicians to such a low ebb, and not just Labour politicians. "Cast Iron Dave" and "Flip-Flop" Clegg are just as bad as "Bliar" ever was.
I pen these words at the end of a week that has also seen an unprecedented assault on Nigel Farage and UKIP, but one which so far seems to have done little to dent the party's standing. This is no surprise, and the reason can be found by considering a simple question:- Would you trust Nigel Farage any more than Cameron, Clegg or Miliband? I know plenty of ex-UKIPpers (and a few current members) who most certainly wouldn't, but this is to miss the point. It doesn't matter whether you trust him or not. Nigel has often said that he doesn't see himself as a politican, and many of UKIP's supporters don't either. He is an anti-politician - a focus for the many in our country today whose trust in politics has been broken.
Of course, lack of trust in the political system isn't purely a UK phenomenon. Italy's Five Star movement is another manifestation of the same problem. Its leader, Beppe Grillo, is another anti-politician. He has a criminal conviction and therefore cannot stand for Parliament.
I don't know whether his supporters view him as trustworthy either, but he has certainly made an impact, just as UKIP has. However, anti-politicians can only go so far. Trust needs to be restored in politics, because lack of trust in our leaders soon permeates to all areas of society. Can we trust teachers? the police? judges? even our neighbours? (after all, they might be working for MI5!) You see what I mean? Consipracy theories begin to abound and in a worst case scenario, no one trusts anyone.
In Albania during the rule of Enver Hoxha, 1 in 5 people were apparently informers, and this highlights a vital truth:- Liberty and trust go together. Of course, there have always been rogues and crooks, but the level of trust in all levels of society was much higher 100 years ago and it is no coincidence the degree of liberty we enjoyed then was also much greater. There was a link between the fact that, in AJP Taylor's immortal words, "a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman" and the greater degree of trust.
So while the UKIP phenomenon is very welcome in its disturbing of the cosiness of the Werstminster élite, we need something more than that:- we need honest, trustworthy politicians in positions of power, even if some of them hold views we may not agree with. We can't rely on anti-politicians for ever; if we try to, we'll end up with tyrants - people far more like Enver Hoxha or Kim Jong-un than the late amiable pipe-smoking democratic socialist Tony Benn.
Bob Crow could claim to have inherited the coveted mantle of the Centre Right's bête noire - a man who kept a bust of Lenin in his office and named his dog after Fidel Castro. In other words, an unreconstructed Marxist and a throwback to the worst years of union militancy.
But much as I abhor the politics of these men (apart from their euroscepticism), there was a positive side to them which is distinctly lacking in much of Westminster these days - WYSYWIG. What you see is what you get. Bob Crow was a blunt man who fought hard for the members of his RMT union, but you knew where you stood with him. Likewise Tony Benn was an open man. For all one's disagreement with his ideology, at least he wasn't afraid to spell out where he was cming from. He had principles, however misguided they may have been.
In other words, both these men belonged to an age that is sadly vanishing - an age of trust and honesty. If there is one reason why many of us on the Centre Right who remember the 1970s now find ourselves feeling a sense of sadness over the loss of people like Tony Benn, it is because with hindsight, the real "nasties" turned out not to be the serious hard core socialists but the devious modernisers - Roy Jenkins, Tony Blair and so on. They came across as being "moderate", perhaps even "nice", but in reality did more to poison society than the likes of Tony Benn or Michael Foot. It is the modernisers who have brought trust in politicians to such a low ebb, and not just Labour politicians. "Cast Iron Dave" and "Flip-Flop" Clegg are just as bad as "Bliar" ever was.
I pen these words at the end of a week that has also seen an unprecedented assault on Nigel Farage and UKIP, but one which so far seems to have done little to dent the party's standing. This is no surprise, and the reason can be found by considering a simple question:- Would you trust Nigel Farage any more than Cameron, Clegg or Miliband? I know plenty of ex-UKIPpers (and a few current members) who most certainly wouldn't, but this is to miss the point. It doesn't matter whether you trust him or not. Nigel has often said that he doesn't see himself as a politican, and many of UKIP's supporters don't either. He is an anti-politician - a focus for the many in our country today whose trust in politics has been broken.
Of course, lack of trust in the political system isn't purely a UK phenomenon. Italy's Five Star movement is another manifestation of the same problem. Its leader, Beppe Grillo, is another anti-politician. He has a criminal conviction and therefore cannot stand for Parliament.
I don't know whether his supporters view him as trustworthy either, but he has certainly made an impact, just as UKIP has. However, anti-politicians can only go so far. Trust needs to be restored in politics, because lack of trust in our leaders soon permeates to all areas of society. Can we trust teachers? the police? judges? even our neighbours? (after all, they might be working for MI5!) You see what I mean? Consipracy theories begin to abound and in a worst case scenario, no one trusts anyone.
In Albania during the rule of Enver Hoxha, 1 in 5 people were apparently informers, and this highlights a vital truth:- Liberty and trust go together. Of course, there have always been rogues and crooks, but the level of trust in all levels of society was much higher 100 years ago and it is no coincidence the degree of liberty we enjoyed then was also much greater. There was a link between the fact that, in AJP Taylor's immortal words, "a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman" and the greater degree of trust.
So while the UKIP phenomenon is very welcome in its disturbing of the cosiness of the Werstminster élite, we need something more than that:- we need honest, trustworthy politicians in positions of power, even if some of them hold views we may not agree with. We can't rely on anti-politicians for ever; if we try to, we'll end up with tyrants - people far more like Enver Hoxha or Kim Jong-un than the late amiable pipe-smoking democratic socialist Tony Benn.