More Time for Politics by Tony Benn

‘There is a passion in Benn’s writing and speaking that far transcends the miserable aspirations of most contemporary politicians’ - Paul Foot, Guardian

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

Reviews

“ [Benn's] interest in politics has transmuted into an interest in individual human beings. And through all the pain and sorrow, there is a new kind of freedom in his thoughts and in his writing ”

Mail on Sunday

“ There is something amusing on almost every page of these diaries. Tony Benn loves paradox, and looking at things from a different angle to the one you might expect. He tells us at the start that the old have a great deal to learn from the young, and a delightful air of unreality hangs over his writing. ”

Daily Telegraph

“ A compelling, often rollicking read ”

Observer

“ Inspiring and touching ”

Financial Times

“ Don't miss this volume ”

Peter Lewis, Books of the Year, Daily Mail

“ A delight and an inspiration. Fiercely intelligent, warm, humane and profoundly moving ”

Clare Allan, Books of the Year, Independent

“ This is a lovely book; warm, humane, genuinely revelatory and, on occasions, a touch surreal ”

Sunday Times

EBook

9781409063209

July 1, 2010

Cornerstone Digital

432 pages
Online retailers
Paperback

9780099517054

September 15, 2008

Arrow

432 pages

RRP $24.99
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