Benn, the Queen and the "poorest he", Anthony Barnett

Anthony Barnett — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:37:30 +0000

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Just returned from speaking at the Levellers Day festivities in Burford. On this day - 17 May - in 1649 three Levellers, Cornet Thompson, Corporal Perkins and Private Church, were executed as an example to the rest, as Cromwell crushed a rebellion amongst the early democrats in the rank and file of his army.
I was speaking with Mary Southcott, a hero of the campaign for electoral reform in the Labour Party, and Tony Benn in a morning discussion chaired by Giles Fraser, who among other things is the vicar of St Mary's Putney, home of the famous Putney Debates.
If I can I'll write up my speaking notes and post them. The topic for the day was: "Time for a Written Constitution?" There was a lively discussion and Q&A session. I think I held my own, but it is always both daunting and entertaining to be on same platform as Benn. In reply to a question about the Monarchy he said he opposed "personalising" the question of the Crown and then added, "Though, I danced with the Queen in 1945. I won her in a raffle. She has one of the most boring jobs in the world for which she is eminently qualified".
After the discussion we laid flowers at the plaque commemorating the three soldiers of the cause while a pike guard in full 17th century costume lowered their staffs and we had a minutes silence. Then we all paraded through Burford banners flying, Morris dancers in the lead, stopping the Saturday traffic in one of the priciest villages in David Cameron's constituency.

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Benn, the Queen and the "poorest he", Anthony Barnett