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Utopias and the Welfare State by Tony Benn In conjunction with The Welfare Show exhibition in London, the Serpentine Gallery hosted an evening with Tony Benn in February 2006: an unusual context in which to hear the great politician's thoughts on the British welfare system. Contesting what he deems The Welfare Show's “Nordic pessimism,” he looks back over history – recounting personal anecdotes and drawing upon references that span from the 1381 Peasants Revolt to Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, and Galileo to Mein Kampf – to advocate his belief that we can change things for the better. Benn grew up in a political family. His father, a Liberal politician who later crossed over to the Labour Party, encouraged him to “dare to be a Daniel” and fight for human rights. His mother was a devout theologian who campaigned for the ordination of women, for which she was rebuked by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1925, the year her son was born. As a young man, Benn witnessed the development of the British welfare state under Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee, whose party won a landslide victory in July 1945. Attlee's government nationalized key parts of industry, made secondary education compulsory for all children, and established the National Health Service, among other social reforms. In 1951, Tony Benn became the youngest MP in the House of Commons, having been elected Labour MP for Bristol South East, and thus began an illustrious – if frequently controversial – political career. During the Labour governments of 1964-70 and 1974-79, Benn held the positions of Postmaster General, Secretary of State for Industry and for Energy and Minister for Technology. During this time Benn shifted to the left, as his passion against the injustice of capitalism grew. In the 1980s, he was one of Margaret Thatcher most outspoken critics and fought against her government's erosion of the welfare state and her “smashing” of the trade unions, epitomized by her handling of the 1984 Miners' Strike. Benn retired from Parliament in 2001, after fifty years of service – to “devote more time to politics” – and has remained impressively politically active. In the weeks before the Iraq War in February 2003, he traveled to Baghdad at his own expense to interview Saddam Hussein. [...] Katalogauszug |