Review

Tony Benn

Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury

From loony left hate figure to national treasure, Tony Benn has always managed to attract a crowd.

And a 650-strong capacity audience at Shrewsbury’s superb new Theatre Severn last night proved the veteran socialist is as popular as ever.

He may be a bit deaf, he may be short-sighted but the tea-drinking, pipe-smoking, teetotal vegetarian has a mind as sharp as a razor.

And at the age of 84, the grandfather of 10 has taken his brand of politics away from the Houses of Parliament and out on to the road, like some firebrand preacher of old.

The “Audience With . . .” style format started with a 15-minute monologue in which Benn looked at the worldwide recession, its similarities to the depression of the 1930s and the resulting rise in fascism, and the hopes of young wartime servicemen like himself who wanted to create a better and more democratic world in peacetime.

Nationalising the banks was one “commonsense” measure, he said. They were a public service just like the police and firemen – and nobody wanted to privatise them.

The bulk of the evening was taken up with questions from the audience on topics ranging from the growth of the British National Party in Shropshire to the thousands of people killed and injured in Gaza, from hospital trusts to New Labour. And he certainly doesn’t think much of Peter Mandelson!

A woman from Castle Caereinion asked how the Government could so easily close her village post office, despite a huge community protest, and yet pay millions of pounds to failing banks.

The former postmaster general replied: “I feel so angry about what is being done. It’s a betrayal of a public service upon which we all depend.”

Peter Johnson