Word: benn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Among the left-wing Laborites who defied Wilson on the Market issue, Industry Minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn stands in greatest danger of being hoist with his own petard. It was Benn who in 1972 first proposed the Common Market referendum. At the time, opinion polls were reporting a solid 2-to-1 antiMarket majority. Benn saw the referendum as an ideal vehicle to propel himself into leadership of a populist left-wing movement that would assert its supremacy over the pro-Market establishment in the Labor Party. With the help of enormous and largely hostile press publicity, he turned...
What prompted his observation was a charge by left-wing Industry Minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn that membership in the Common Market had already cost Britain 500,000 jobs, about half the current unemployment. This fanciful statistic (simplistically based on Britain's trade deficit) was only one of the wild "facts" that flew to and fro as Britain prepared to vote this week on whether to remain in the Common Market. Pro-European zealots hinted ominously that a no vote would benefit the Communists. Anti-Europeans countered by charging that the American CIA, which helped to finance some European-unity...
...campaign to present the EEC as a threat to British sovereignty is being spearheaded by left-wing labor leaders and their staunchest supporters within Wilson's Cabinet, Employment Minister Michael Foot, Trade Minister Peter Shore and Industry Minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn. Some political observers argue that Wilson's left-wing opponents are using the Common Market referendum to challenge his control of the Labor Party for reasons only tangentially connected to the EEC. The politically ambitious Benn, whose campaign to advance public ownership of British industry has made him anathema to the party's right wing, seems...
...leader of the movement is Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the Secretary of State for Industry. His policy, called "Bennery" by his many critics, is to force cash-squeezed companies to accept government control in return for government bailout money. His biggest takeover so far is of British Leyland, the nation's largest auto-and truckmaker (Austin Morris, Rover, Jaguar, Triumph), which could not raise funds for plant modernization. The Labor government has already committed $2.2 billion to Leyland, but the total outlay may exceed $6 billion. The rescue plan, however, does not call for cutting back employment, though overmanning...
...fact, Wilson's Labor government had given the EEC something less than a ringing endorsement. Seven of the 23 Cabinet members, including such influential left-wing radicals as Employment Secretary Michael Foot and Industry Secretary Anthony Wedgewood Benn, opposed the decision; estimates are that at least 139 of the 318 Labor M.P.s will vote against Wilson's recommendation when it is put to an initial vote in Commons next month. Moreover, 18 of the 30 members of Labor's National Executive said that they will reject the Cabinet recommendation when it is put up for approval...