My grandfather died two years ago this week. He was one of my heroes, but I have got to be honest: he was a career doctor.
From his late teenage years and throughout his time at university, everything he did – even his year as a sabbatical officer at the student union – was obsessively focused on becoming a doctor. After he qualified, he was still so straight-up fixated on getting somewhere in a hurry that he uprooted our family from north London to sub-Saharan Africa to practise medicine: so as well as being a careerist, he was a carpetbagger.
My grandfather left the world a better place than he found it, partly because he worked so tirelessly and singlemindedly. So why, if instead of being a devoted doctor he had been an ambitious politician, would I have to pretend to be ashamed?
Tony Benn was a career politician. He was born into a political family, and he never worked outside politics; he worked briefly in radio before being selected for a safe seat he had no real connection to. It seems to me that Benn is not a bad advert for career politicians: yes, he was wrong about almost everything, but he was effective. The 1983 election ended in tears, but it was also the only point in the Labour party’s long incrementalist history that we decided that, yes, in fact, we would like the whole sandwich. Never before and never again would the Labour party stand on a manifesto so far from the mainstream; that is a tribute not just to what Benn got wrong, but what he got right, too.
That did not happen in spite of the fact he never had a ‘proper job’. Tony Benn became a transformative politician for the same reason my grandfather ended up with an OBE for services to people with HIV and AIDS – by doing something he loved well for a long time. If you look at Labour’s most effective communicators – Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman, Caroline Flint – what they have got in common is that they have been doing it for a while. For the most part, the way we become good at things is by practising. Having a ‘proper job’ has not made me a better writer. Writing has made me a better writer, albeit from a low base. Doing politics made Tony Blair a better prime minister; that is why he was more effective at the end of his time in office than the beginning. Ken Livingstone was better at politics when he was mayor of London than when he was head of the Greater London council. Ed Miliband is better at politics now than he was in 2010.
I simply do not believe that there is anyone who would have been worse off if my grandfather had been less driven, or if Tony Benn had spent the early 1950s working in a milk bar. I do not believe that there is anyone who would be better off if Ed Miliband had spent three years as a recruitment consultant. I am proud that Labour’s leader has wanted to change society since he was a teenager. We should not be blind to the dangers of a closed shop, but we should not be ashamed of a vocation, either. There were lots of things Tony Benn got wrong; devoting his life to politics was not one of them.
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Stephen Bush is a contributing editor to Progress, writes a weekly column for Progress, the Tuesday review, and tweets @stephenkb
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Photo: Chris Boland www.bolandactorheadshots.co.uk
I had a rather different perspective on Tony Benn, published in the Indpendent blog at
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2014/03/18/death-of-the-great-anti-authoritarian/
Nice reflective piece – I could smell the hot sesert air. Not everyone can afford to become a doctor or has the ‘calling’ to help others after spending 7 years studying medicines and medical/surgical procedures. Thankfully anyone can become a politician [even doctors] and politicians have far greater power and maybe that’s what attracts certain people to the political arenas. I personally feel that anyone who has the inclination to govern with ultimate power as in the buck stops here Commander in Chief or in any Parliament or Duma or Knesset et cetera should have the proper training and be psychologically evaluated every 6 months. Hi Vlad, how’s the weather in Moscow?
No one can argue that people who concentrate on one career don’t make a contribution but. That doesn’t mean it’s the only worthwhile way to go. My opinion of Tony Benn is not influenced one way or another by him being a career politician. It is influenced by his being a self publicist!!!
No one can argue that people who concentrate on one career don’t make a contribution but. That doesn’t mean it’s the only worthwhile way to go. My opinion of Tony Benn is not influenced one way or another by him being a career politician. It is influenced by his being a self publicist!!!
Career Politicians –Yes we have a large number operating in the party–using The Labour Party as a career pathway–that is why we do not have any real personalities coming through the ranks.
Although trying to portray Tony Benn as a “career
politician,” the author is somehow trying to justify “career politicians.” I
can understand the frustration exhibited by some of the comments above.
Progress, which I joined in 1997 when starting to be more active in politics,
is a “breeding ground” for career politicians. It is self-supporting of the privileged
clique (s) within the organisation. For example, promoting candidates for
various positions in the Labour Party with influence and MPs. Nevertheless, let’s
be honest; CLPD has a “slate,” and is doing the same.
Many people (especially of my generation) hold career
politicians in contempt as they simply do not connect with the Grey Vote. It is
very difficult to explain to young people WHY politicians and aspiring
politicians (not only MPs, but “advisers,” “experts” in “think tanks,” etc.)
without experience of a life outside academia/ “Westminster Bubble,” – in so-called
“real jobs” – have a huge hole in the “rounded person.” Unless they actually
experience life outside politics, they cannot understand and gain empathy of
what they are missing. To be crude, I often wonder whether they have ever had a
rewarding and “proper shag” for of fear of their reputations and exposes in the
gutter press!
In my 68 years, I experienced a degree of poverty, became
an electrical apprentice/electrician, went to sea, Merchant Navy Electrical
Engineer, RNR, bummed around on a bike, went into FE e/engineering, teaching,
ran a Teacher Training Course, married, Divorced, four kids, fought through
many courts as a Litigant in Person, up to and in the Court of Appeal,
travelled a great deal, even a Dance Host on cruise ships, “expert on the
Singles Scene,” etc. etc. I have gone through considerable emotional pain but I
GREATLY VALUE MY LIFE EXPERIENCE AND I THINK IT MAKES ME A BETTER PERSON. Even
the bad experience is good, because you learn from it.
As a general rule, MPs should be of a mature age and
EXPERIENCE. Parliament should be a collection of people TRULY representative of
the population from dustmen to surgeons. Liz Kendle may try and get away with
it by smiling a lot or shouting down panellists on Question Time, but how can
voters have faith in the breed she represents when she is Shadow Health
Minister who has not even worked in the Public Sector, let alone the NHS?
As a writer, wishing to get a rounded view, I belong to
many political organisations. However, I tried to interest the Progress Editor
with articles on policies that might connect with older people, but was
ignored. Too old or the elite “knows best?”?
Andrew Rawnsley last week’s Observer ” the governments of Tony Blair did more to improve the lives of working people than Tony Benn ever managed “. True but a quick point; Tony Benn did a lot to awaken us to the ruling elite’s hegemony while Tony Blair was far too inside the Murdoch empire with his emails to Rebecca Wade. History is never simplistic.