Tuesday 18th March
18:00 - 19:00
Politics
£7/£6
Tony Benn, the ‘best political diarist of our time‘ according to the Financial Times, comes to Glasgow to talk about his life since he left parliament after 51 years in 2007. It did not mean giving up politics, however: for the first seven years of this century he has helped reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass campaigns and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral and political issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he has been keeping his diaries, the latest volume of which, More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007, was published last year. He talks incisively as ever on the demise of the New Labour project, the foreign policy disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, the by-passing of Cabinet, parliament and the party, the ‘war on terror‘, the debate about Islam, globalisation and the changes in British society. Although he is no longer in power or in parliament, Tony Benn remains a figure of enormous respect whose direct views, honestly expressed, have often awakened the national conscience. His latest diaries, human and challenging in turn, are an enthralling read, and a great evening is in store.