Tony Benn: no spin, no false sympathy, no nonsense

One of the Left’s most influential and charismatic figures – with film star looks to boot

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(Image credit: 2007 Getty Images)

Editor's note: Tony Benn's death was announced this morning. He was 88.

I HAVE no special anecdote about the former Labour MP and Cabinet minister, Tony Benn, who is, as I write, still alive, just very ill and very old. No personal vignette to share that would show I know anything more about him than most other people.

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Annalisa Barbieri, sketch writer for The Week, is a UK-based writer and broadcaster. A former fishing correspondent of The Independent she is now a columnist for The Guardian and contributes to The Economist's Intelligent Life and National Geographic Traveller. She is patron of Rights of Women.