Britain’s Conservatives adopt the bad habits of the Labour left
The cult of the member grips the opposition
TONY BENN died in 2014 as a socialist hero to the left. But he is remembered by his opponents within the Labour Party for a singularly bad idea: the cause of “party democracy”. Labour, Benn reckoned, was “riddled with the same aristocratic ideas as deface our national democracy”. From the 1970s on, he battled to make its MPs beholden to the wishes of its card-carrying members. To his critics, that inverted the party, placing the whims of its activists above those of the wider electorate it was bound to serve.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Tory Benn”
Britain October 5th 2024
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From the October 5th 2024 edition
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