Where have all the big hitters gone?

Bust of the late Labour politician Tony Benn at City Hall, Bristol where I attended an event on AI and Health Care.

I saw Tony Benn speak twice late in his life, and he was characteristically articulate. What ever you thought of his politics, he was a superb orator, debater and diarist.

Whilst he might be thought of by many to be very much on left, few can argue with two of his most significant achievements. He successfully contested his inherited peerage in order to continue his membership of the House of Commons. Also, not known to many outside Bristol, he took on the bigoted trade unionists who, in the 60s, unbelievably blocked black people from becoming bus drivers on nakedly racial grounds.

Like him or not, there are so few politicians of his stature around these days.