Word: benn
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When his father's death made him a viscount in 1960, a popular, promising Labor M.P. named Anthony Wedgwood Benn rocked the Debrett set by declaring vehemently that he wanted no part of the peerage. Reason: lords, lunatics, criminals and minors are barred from sitting in the House of Commons, where political careers are made and most Cabinet ministers chosen...
...Wedgy" Benn. then 35. refused to become Lord Stansgate and take his seat in the House of Lords, the largely ceremonial upper house that has been called "the last infirmary of noble minds." Instead, Mister Wedgwood Benn, as he insisted on calling himself, ran for re-election from Bristol South-East, and easily won. But the High Court ruled that a peer's male heir, ''lawfully begotten," may not renounce his title. Protesting that he was thus ''the victim of my father's virtue." "the Reluctant Peer'' was forced to stand aside...
Last week, as a direct result of Wedgwood Benn's battle to remain a commoner, a joint parliamentary committee proposed new rules for the Lords. Its key recommendation: hereditary peers should henceforth be allowed to surrender their titles for life and run for Commons if they wish. The change seems almost certain to pass into law. For though most Tories are reluctant to adopt a measure that might make the Lords even more ineffectual than at present, they fear that unless it is reformed, a future socialist government may abolish the Lords altogether on the ground that an upper...
Most of them are bored by political debate and seldom show up. On the other hand, several able, politically-minded aristocrats who refuse to sit in the Lords have joined Wedgwood Benn's boycott with the express aim of changing the system. Among them: Lord Hinchingbrooke, a lively Tory rebel who lost his Commons seat this year when he became the tenth Earl of Sandwich, and Lord Altrincham, a trenchant anti-Establishment columnist for the Liberal Manchester Guardian...
...This is by far the most spirited team I have ever seen," insists coach Benn Merritt. "Ben Brooks (varsity coach) is proud of his team, but no prouder than I am of mine...