Tony Benn – A Politician with a Passion for Truth, Justice and Humanity

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Saturday 1377  – 15.03.2014

I couldn’t let this Saturday go past without paying a tribute to Tony Benn who died yesterday, 14th March.  He was an inspirational man who believed in the Socialist ideals of fairness and equality for all.  He was an ardent supporter of the Anti War movement and president of the Stop the War Coalition. Below is the photo I took of him, the last time I saw him speak, at the demonstration against Military Intervention in Syria in August 2013. He was dedicated to the cause of Peace right up to the very end of his life.  If you click on the picture it will link you to a video of this speech, one of his last.

You always knew that he really meant what he said and he is certainly the only politician I can remember who I have felt has been entirely trustworthy throughout his decades as a Member of Parliament. 

Yes of course he made mistakes and it is ironic that his hard left politics are blamed for  helping to convince people to vote for the Conservatives during the 1980’s. A Scapegoat maybe?

Sadly the country was not ready for his strident Socialism; I wonder if it would be now, when we have millions relying on Food banks in this country and where the divide between rich and poor has never been greater.?

Certainly the brand of Capitalism we have is not working when , according to Oxfam,  “1 in 5 of the UK population live below our official poverty line, meaning that they experience life as a daily struggle”

That is over 13 million people …  A shocking figure isn’t it? .

The quote at the top of this page says it all. This is what Tony Benn believed fervently and of course he was absolutely correct.

He once said “I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly, demoralize them.” 

The quote above was from Tony Benn’s interview with Michael Moore in Sicko, in which he highlighted poverty and healthcare inequality as a democratic issue. “The people in debt become hopeless, and the hopeless people don’t vote… an educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern,” he said.

Tony Benn has never been afraid to speak out and in 2009 he famously took on the BBC during an interview because they would not broadcast details of a Gaza Crisis Appeal so he went ahead and gave the details on air and would not allow the interviewer to stop him. Truly magnificent !!

Click on this picture below which will take you to the short video . It’s only 3 mins long and shows his humanity and passion for what is right. I absolutely commend it to you.

Tony was also a prolific diarist and letter writer and below is the very moving last letter he wrote to his children and grandchildren. Truly he was an exceptional human being and the world is poorer for his loss..

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” There in every human heart from the beginning of time there have been two flames burning , the flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope that you can build a better world. And those two flames are burning in our hearts today, in the hearts and minds of millions of people.”

– Tony Benn

http://stopwar.org.uk/news/rip-tony-benn-tireless-and-inspirational-fighter-for-peace-justice-and-equality

http://www.cnduk.org/cnd-media/item/1851-tony-benn-a-stalwart-of-the-peace-and-anti-nuclear-movement

As ever I welcome your thoughts .

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Saturday girl signing off.

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You can find my photography blog Photomania here 

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In Honour of Women on International Women’s Day

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Saturday 1377  – 8.03.2014

Many of you, who have been following this blog for a while, will remember that last year , on International Women’s Day,  I attended the Million Women Rise march in London and wrote about it here  ( warning – one of the photos is difficult to view) 

I was not able to attend this year but I did not want to let the day pass without writing about it so this afternoon I took myself off to a large supermarket car park and stalked  randomly selected a diverse range of women of all ages and ethnicity to photograph for this post.  It was rather daunting approaching complete strangers and a few were not best pleased !!

I’m delighted to say that the lovely women you see above said yes and I would like to sincerely thank them for being so utterly agreeable and kind to this stranger.

I chose these women to represent their sisters throughout the world who are living in very different circumstances.  Some may, and do, ask why do we need a day specifically for women and the answer is because women are still a very long way from being equal in this world and we all need to keep drawing attention to this until it’s no longer necessary.

A few facts :-

• According to the World Health Organisation, 35.6% of women worldwide, shockingly more than a third, will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.
• According to the Office of National statistics here in the UK approx 85000 women in England and Wales are raped every year with over 400,000 being sexually assaulted. More shocking statistics, thought to be underestimated too.
• Women do 66% of the worlds work and produce 50% of the world’s food but get only 10% of overall income and own 1% of property.
• Women hold less than 19% of parliamentary seats worldwide with just 16 of the 188 world’s elected leaders being female.

Hardly seems right for 51%  of the world’s population does it? 

So this is why we have an International Women’s day and we don’t have an International Men’s day. 49% of the world’s population, namely men, have the other 364 days already it seems.  

Now this post is not about knocking men ( I LOVE men ! ) it’s about loving women. More importantly it’s about encouraging men to respect women and it’s especially about encouraging both men and women to teach their sons to respect women and their daughters that they absolutely deserve this respect. 

Teaching  both boys and girls that women are equals in this world is the most important message I want to get across because, without that, women will continue to be treated as second class citizens and that clearly is the most terrible injustice and has to stop.

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Thanks again to the wonderful women in the photos above and to all of you for reading. As ever I welcome your thoughts .

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Saturday girl signing off.

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You can find my photography blog Photomania here 

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