Dare to Be a Daniel Read Online Free Page B
Author: Tony Benn
slogan:
Friends of Labour, Working Men
Stick to Gladstone, Vote for Benn.
John was a passionate believer in Home Rule for Ireland and defeated C. J. Ritchie, who was then President of the Local Government Board, receiving a message of congratulations from Mr Gladstone himself.
After losing his seat in 1895 by eleven votes, having forgotten to vote for himself, he stood in the Deptford by-election in 1897, calling for a bigger house-building programme and for cheap fares for workmen. A scurrilous campaign was mounted against him in a newspaper called
The Sun
owned by Harry Marks, which circulated to every elector a special edition attacking John Benn. He was defeated by 324 votes, a result that led John Burns to announce that ‘The election had been won by a newspaper owned by blackguards, edited by scoundrels.’ Later, in the General Election of 1900, my grandfather stood for Bermondsey, where he was again defeated. He was ultimately successful in re-entering Parliament for Devonport.
As Chairman also of the LCC, he set out in 1904 his political philosophy in these words, describing the role of the council as guardian of the plain citizen, and foreshadowing the Beveridge Report forty years later:
The Council now follows and guards him from the cradle to the grave. It looks after his health, personal safety and afflicted relatives; it protects him from all sorts of public nuisances; it endeavours to see that he is decently housed or itself houses him.
It keeps an eye on his coal cellar and his larder; it endeavours to make his city more beautiful or convenient; it looks after his municipal purse and corporate property and treasures his historical memories.
It tends and enriches his broad acres and small open spaces and cheers him with music.
It sees that those it employs directly or indirectly enjoy tolerable wages and fair conditions.
It speaks up for him in Parliament, both as to what he wants and what he does not want; and last and greatest of all, it now looks after his children, good and bad, hoping, if it is possible, to make them better and wiser than their progenitors.
In 1910 he spoke alongside Keir Hardie at a rally in Hyde Park in support of Lloyd George’s Budget.
One of the last decisions taken by the LCC was to acquire the site on the river on which its home, County Hall, was built. It was Mrs Thatcher who abolished its successor, the Greater London Council, because she did not believe in any of the principles that John Benn espoused.
John was very popular with children and once composed a children’s prayer: ‘O God, please make the bad people good and the good people nice.’ He also wrote ‘The Christmas Pudding Song’ which I remember my father singing at Christmas, to the tune of ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’:
Once there was a pudding
At least I fancied so
She had three little children
Whose names I think you know
There was Peter Mincepie first
Michael Orange sitting by
And little Lucy Lemon who
Seemed just about to cry.
Chorus:
Sing a song of Pudding full of spice and plums
Crowned with glistening holly, when old Xmas comes
Pass the pudding plates and have another slice
And clap clap clap for Christmas time and everything that’s nice.
Worthy Mistress Pudding who had so wise a head
She always gave a raisin for everything she said
She plummed her neighbours up with spicy compliments
Her words were also eatable and with the currant went.
Chorus
Little Peter Mincepie was so cut up one day
He always was so crusty and had a nasty way
Of making very ill the folks who took him in
They couldn’t sleep a wink at night he kicked up such a din.
Chorus
Little Michael Orange was such a charming boy
To make his playmates happy was ever Michael’s joy
He covered them with juice and though they sucked him dry
This very happy little chap was never known to cry.
Chorus
Little Lucy Lemon whenever she was squeezed
She always pulled a nasty face and said ‘I won’t be
Friends of Labour, Working Men
Stick to Gladstone, Vote for Benn.
John was a passionate believer in Home Rule for Ireland and defeated C. J. Ritchie, who was then President of the Local Government Board, receiving a message of congratulations from Mr Gladstone himself.
After losing his seat in 1895 by eleven votes, having forgotten to vote for himself, he stood in the Deptford by-election in 1897, calling for a bigger house-building programme and for cheap fares for workmen. A scurrilous campaign was mounted against him in a newspaper called
The Sun
owned by Harry Marks, which circulated to every elector a special edition attacking John Benn. He was defeated by 324 votes, a result that led John Burns to announce that ‘The election had been won by a newspaper owned by blackguards, edited by scoundrels.’ Later, in the General Election of 1900, my grandfather stood for Bermondsey, where he was again defeated. He was ultimately successful in re-entering Parliament for Devonport.
As Chairman also of the LCC, he set out in 1904 his political philosophy in these words, describing the role of the council as guardian of the plain citizen, and foreshadowing the Beveridge Report forty years later:
The Council now follows and guards him from the cradle to the grave. It looks after his health, personal safety and afflicted relatives; it protects him from all sorts of public nuisances; it endeavours to see that he is decently housed or itself houses him.
It keeps an eye on his coal cellar and his larder; it endeavours to make his city more beautiful or convenient; it looks after his municipal purse and corporate property and treasures his historical memories.
It tends and enriches his broad acres and small open spaces and cheers him with music.
It sees that those it employs directly or indirectly enjoy tolerable wages and fair conditions.
It speaks up for him in Parliament, both as to what he wants and what he does not want; and last and greatest of all, it now looks after his children, good and bad, hoping, if it is possible, to make them better and wiser than their progenitors.
In 1910 he spoke alongside Keir Hardie at a rally in Hyde Park in support of Lloyd George’s Budget.
One of the last decisions taken by the LCC was to acquire the site on the river on which its home, County Hall, was built. It was Mrs Thatcher who abolished its successor, the Greater London Council, because she did not believe in any of the principles that John Benn espoused.
John was very popular with children and once composed a children’s prayer: ‘O God, please make the bad people good and the good people nice.’ He also wrote ‘The Christmas Pudding Song’ which I remember my father singing at Christmas, to the tune of ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’:
Once there was a pudding
At least I fancied so
She had three little children
Whose names I think you know
There was Peter Mincepie first
Michael Orange sitting by
And little Lucy Lemon who
Seemed just about to cry.
Chorus:
Sing a song of Pudding full of spice and plums
Crowned with glistening holly, when old Xmas comes
Pass the pudding plates and have another slice
And clap clap clap for Christmas time and everything that’s nice.
Worthy Mistress Pudding who had so wise a head
She always gave a raisin for everything she said
She plummed her neighbours up with spicy compliments
Her words were also eatable and with the currant went.
Chorus
Little Peter Mincepie was so cut up one day
He always was so crusty and had a nasty way
Of making very ill the folks who took him in
They couldn’t sleep a wink at night he kicked up such a din.
Chorus
Little Michael Orange was such a charming boy
To make his playmates happy was ever Michael’s joy
He covered them with juice and though they sucked him dry
This very happy little chap was never known to cry.
Chorus
Little Lucy Lemon whenever she was squeezed
She always pulled a nasty face and said ‘I won’t be
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