The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980-1990

Tony Benn Diaries #6

by Tony Benn, Ruth Winstone (Editor)

Tony Benn's final instalment of diaries centres on a decade which saw the disintegration of Eastern Europe, an unprecedented assault on the labour movement at home, the fall of Margaret Thatcher and the tragic war in the Gulf. It is a period which marks the peak of Tony Benn's reputation as a brilliant parliamentarian. This final volume of diaries gives us insight into an era of extraordinary international and domestic political life making it one of the most important political writings of our time.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Diary

704 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 1992

About the author

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party politician. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1951 until 2001, and was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. After his retirement from the House of Commons, he continued his activism and served as president of the Stop the War Coalition.

Reviews

[Curmudgeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all diaries and autobiographies, the opinions and perceptions of people and events contained within should be taken with a grain of salt...but the book is still an interesting and valuable insider's look at the internal turmoil of the Labour party in the 1980s, as well as the various campaigns of the far-left in Britain and abroad during the same era. Benn pulls no punches--he generally seems much crueler to members of his own party than to Conservatives, and he is also very swift to overplay his own importance as much as possible (again, not unusual among diarists)--but the end result is still very readable and full of lots of interesting details, covering everything from disastrous party policy meetings under Callaghan, Foot, and Kinnock, to an encounter with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1990. You may find yourself inventing drinking games to play as you read along with the book though, given the repetitiveness of some of his rhetoric and arguments.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers the 1980s, not a happy time for the author (apart from all the new grandchildren!) Obviously the printed diary is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the whole, so there are places where you read the beginning of something but don't find out what happened next. There are so many parallels here with some aspects of political life today, particularly the attitude of the BBC and the split personality
of the Labour Party. Tony Benn, while mainly on the losing side, drops in some very astute analyses of people and situations, and forecasts of what might happen in the future, some of which are very prescient. Essential reading for understanding what happened to Britain in the 1980s (the sequel is being played out now).

[Bill Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that completes my reading of the Tony Benn diaries. I started with the next volume, ran through to the end and then started at the beginning. It's been a very interesting journey and impressive for its apparent honesty. I remain an admirer of Benn even though I disagree with some of his fundamental thoughts. He had developed a strong policy belief, but based on some premises that I disagree with, for example the nature of the European Union.

With this volume, he covers the collapse of the Labour Party under Michael Foot and the resurgence through Neil Kinnock. Benn is at odds with both. As it unfolds in his diaries his main concern is the democratisation of the party, that MPs should follow party policy, decided by conference irrespective of pragmatism with the electorate. Fundamentally, this means the MPs represent their party and not their electorate. He gets bogged down in committees and the internal power battles of the Party. Meanwhile, in the background, is the Thatcher government, the Falklands War and the collapse of USSR. While referenced, this seems of marginal concern in the diaries, where Benn has editorial control. Only at the end is there insight into the beginnings of the first Iraq War.

As on overall experience, and it has been a reading that has taken some 15 years, it is fascinating to see how he developed. I have something sympathy with the Harold Wilson quote, "Tony Benn immatured with age." He does start to seem more like a student union politician in this volume. Whereas, in the previous volumes he was in government. However, he writes well, in diary form, has great insights and reports from life at the heart of British politics with an immediacy that will not be found elsewhere. He is fair to other politicians and civil servants, while venting his frustration with mechanisms of government. He remains one of the great politicians of the 20th Century with good and worthwhile arguments and the achieved good things. I enjoyed my time with him.

[Sue]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12359451