One of the many people that Julie and I took to task in the original version of Not In My Name was Tony Benn. Then, as has been reported, legal issues meant all names had to be removed from the book. So it was goodbye to the Benn chapter.

We’re holding the best of the cut material for a possible future project, but in the meantime here are some extracts from the Benn chapter.

• “I am opposed to the cult of personality in politics,” he often claims. Are you sure? When he’s not publishing yet another volume of his diaries – seven to date so far and no end in sight – or his autobiography, he is opening the stage at Glastonbury or embarking on yet another of his speaking tours of England where he laps up the almost messianic esteem in which his audiences hold him.
• One of his favourite routines during his speaking tours is the one he uses to emphasise his belief in democracy. “When I go into a polling station and I see an old lady on crutches come in and with a pencil destroy a government – ooh, for me that’s an almost religious experience,” he beams. One wonders how he reconciles this with his leading role in the movement that opposed the action to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, because he’s been at the head of more marches on this issue than I’d care to remember.
• So when he saw the Iraqis go to the polls in the wake of the war and cast their votes, did he not for a moment reconsider his position? When an Iraqi lady emerged from her polling booth and told the world: “Today, for the first time, I am a human being,” did he not find that a ‘religious experience’? No, instead he continued to march and speak out against the effort that brought democracy to that woman.
• Having met with Saddam, Benn returned in 2003. This time, he met Tariq Aziz: “We sat in his sitting room, and his wife later came and brought some tea. He has eight grandchildren. He’s a nice guy.” A nice guy who propped up Saddam’s genocidal reign! Good to know, too, that the Catholic Aziz’s wife knew her part in the set-up!
• Another of his favourite “evening with” anecdotes is about the time he went with Gerry Adams to a meeting commemorating the IRA hunger strikers. He tells with pride how Adams gave him a plaque with the names of the hunger strikers on it, together with a quote from Bobby Sands that reads: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” Benn has been known to break down and cry in admiration at these words uttered by the terrorist Sands.

I’m posting this now because at the weekend Benn once again spoke at a demonstration arranged by Hamas supporters. And what he said about Israel and Jesus was absolutely hideous:

The man is a disgrace. It’s high time we stopped fawning over him.