IT is customary at times like this to say we will never see his like again.
Let us hope not. Tony Benn, sans cant, sans hypocrisy, sans compromise, was a man of conviction; a man who thought things out for himself without the need of advisors and spin doctors, a man of fine wit and humour; a well-read and educated man; a restless native; a politician not as we know now.
He was a wonderfully sincere human being who enriched his country and shaped all who were fortunate enough to have lived through his life and times.
We should all commit to growing "immature with age" (a Harold Wilson quote) to keep the current poor crop of shallow career politicians on their toes in Tony Benn's memory.
Robert Bennie,
Clayslaps Road,
Glasgow.
WE had a period in the 1970s at Marathon Shipbuilding, Clydebank, when we were running critically short of orders for the Marathon-Le Tourneau Jack-Up drilling/workover rigs which were our main source of work at that time.
We were concerned that potential orders for new rigs for British Gas in Morecambe Bay were about to be awarded elsewhere by the British National Oil Corporation.
Jimmy Reid and I went on an unofficial quest to meet the then Energy Minister, Dickson Mabon, and Tony Benn, Energy Secretary. I had met Tony in the early 1960s and he made it very clear that we had his support. We put our case, including the cost of the benefits for the skilled unemployed should the yard close.
Tony ensured that the order came to Clydebank. He completely lacked ambiguity, platitudes or clichés; sadly so all-pervasive in today's politics.
With 60 years' experience in various sources of energy, in my view he was the best Energy Secretary we have had.
SH Purdie,
235 Rannoch Road,
Perth.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article