Word: benn
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...undisputed guru of the militant left is M.P. Tony Benn. A constant thorn in the side of Labor's parliamentary party, which comprises the elected M.P.s, Benn has held several Cabinet posts in Labor governments since he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1950. A handsome aristocrat who attributes many of his political ideas to the Bible, Benn became a favorite, if unanointed leader of the extreme left for renouncing his peerage...
...Benn insists he is not a Marxist. Yet during the present crisis, he has uncritically supported militant maneuvering to expand the left's power. Not surprisingly, last week Benn was made a member of Foot's shadow cabinet. Says the man who became famous as "the reluctant peer": "The only time the leaders will take any notice is when those of us who put them where they are today also have the power to remove them...
Even former Prime Minister Sir Harold Wilson joined the fight, dismissing the Wembley vote as "a shambles" and heaping scorn on Benn's devotion to "the divine right of shop stewards...
...Labor closer to a number of extremist positions. Among them: unilateral nuclear disarmament, the banning of U.S. nuclear weapons from Britain, sweeping nationalization of industry, withdrawal from ties with NATO and the European Community and the abolition of the House of Lords. "Today," said left-wing Standard-Bearer Tony Benn, 55, "we have changed the course of British history." The radical platform seemed certain to frighten many of Labor's moderate voters, and the strengthened left in power could transform Britain's relations with the U.S. Warned Kingman Brewster, retiring American Ambassador to London: "Britain...
...main beneficiary of Benn's triumph was Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. With the parliamentary opposition and the press preoccupied by Labor's battles, Thatcher's unpopular economic policies temporarily receded from public attention, despite news last week that unemployment had soared to a new 45-year record...