I was struck by this excerpt from the Wikipedia article about him. Depressingly, this is him speaking about how he felt in the 70s and, if anything, it's only become more relevant today:
Quote:
As regards the power of industrialists and bankers, Benn remarked:
Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes by the unions is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. [...] These [four] lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. Parliamentary democracy is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is
For context, this is the paragraph that precedes it about his 'four lessons':
Quote:
By the end of the 1970s, Benn had migrated to the left wing of the Labour Party. He attributed this political shift to his experience as a Cabinet Minister in the 1964–1970 Labour Government. Benn attributed his move to the left to four lessons: 1) how "the Civil Service can frustrate the policies and decisions of popularly elected governments"; 2) the centralised nature of the Labour Party allowing to the Leader to run "the Party almost as if it were his personal kingdom"; 3) "the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government"; and 4) the power of the media, which "like the power of the medieveal Church, ensures that events of the day are always presented from the point of the view of those who enjoy economic privilege