h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After all, you want to see a grown Gosho cry, would you.

....*




*My standard response to cryptic posts that seem to want to elicit an emotional response but that give no context. If I don't know whether the situation is serious or humorous, I have no response. This is way too common on FriendFace. "Don't respond to this thing I posted to get your attention." But this one is coming from Gosho, and I just don't know how to take it as I really don't expect such behaviour here. So.... Consider me as averting gaze for the next hour or so.

It was nothing more than a documentary about the life of Tony Benn which was broadcast earlier this week, two or three days after he died, I think, but it did squeeze a small amount of wetness from my glazzies

I don't really have regrets - there are things I wish I'd done but never did, and I say to myself "Oh well, it didn't happen, life goes on, it would have been nice but never mind", because piling up regrets about what might have been is no way to live. But there are a very few things I do allow myself to regret, like never having gone to see him speak. I did actually come within a whisker of meeting him when I was about 11 but I wouldn't have known him from Adam at the time.

It wasn't until much later that I came to know and respect him for his commitment to seeing the greatest good befall the greatest number, for his unshakable belief that people who have nothing to sell but their labour should get a fair return for it, that the forces of free market capitalism and unregulated free enterprise are among the most dangerous things humanity has ever invented and the results of industry should be shared far more equally with those who do the work.

There are those who say he contributed more than any factor except the Falklands War to keeping the Tories in government throughout the 80s and most of the 90s, and there might be a deal of truth in that. That's unfortunate if it's true, but it's a measure of the man that even after all that, in his later years and at his death he was looked upon with respect and admiration for his decency, civility and commitment to the common people by everyone with a shred of dignity in their body (not you Blair, Daily Mail, Cameron, Murdoch et al).