Emily Benn Incurs Wrath Of Tweeters Who Think They Know Her Grandfather Tony Benn Better Than Her

These People Should've Known Better Than To Lecture Emily Benn About Her Own Grandfather

Emily Benn's efforts to defend her grandfather Tony Benn's memory has seen the dark forces of Twitter turn against her.

Salmond was just one of the SNP MPs to invoke Benn senior's memory to dismiss the Shadow Foreign Secretary's speech.

When Ms Benn, Hilary's niece, tweeted that Salmond's remark was "deeply offensive" and untrue, she earned the ire of tweeters who thought they knew better.

But Ms Benn, who did not engage with her attackers and followed up only to pay tribute to the RAF personnel taking part in the Syria campaign, saw defenders to her tweets step forward.

Spectator journalist Isabel Hardman mocked their "true arrogance and flagrant twerpishness" and defended Ms Benn, pointing out that being told your are wrong is not the same thing as censorship.

Others joined in to take individuals to task for trying to lecture Ms Benn on her own grandfather.

Writer Iain Martin pointed out that Tony Benn, a Second World War veteran, was not the unconditional pacifist his followers seemed to take him for.

Hilary Benn's speech advocating the bombing drew comparisons with his father's 1998 speech in the Commons, both invoking the United Nations in arguments about war.

Tony Benn was speaking against a motion for bombing Iraq, then under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

He told the Commons: "Every morning I saw the Docklands burning, 500 people were killed in Westminster by a landmine, it was terrifying!

"Aren’t Arabs terrified? Aren’t Iraqis terrified? Don’t Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die?

"Doesn’t bombings strengthen their determination?

"What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children, and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

"Every Member of Parliament tonight who votes for the government motion will be consciously and deliberate accepting the responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will.

"In my parliamentary experience we were asked to share responsibility for a decision we won't really be taking with consequence for people who have no part to play in the brutality of the regime which we are dealing with."

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