>> Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a tape to the studio, so the show
>> was lost to the ozone. Benn argued that the reason he's leaving
>> parliament (after 52 years) when his term expires in 2002 is that he
>> thinks more can be done organizing and agitating outside government,
>> which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of big money. When people say
>> that, I always wonder when it wasn't. . .
>
>Wasn't there a time within his very long living memory when the British
>Labor Party was actually controlled by the unions?
Benn noted in his diary back in 1968 that British government was just so much cosmetic blush - for him, even then US capital was sovereign in Britain. As I remember the entry - it had a sadness about it that suggested it was a stunning new insight for him at the time, and that after twenty years in the parliament.
Cheers, Rob.