Happy 100th Birthday Tony Benn

His five questions for the powerful provide the starting point for our fightback against authoritarianism

Whenever I see Elon Musk gloating about how he's laying waste to 'woke' government departments, sacking hundreds of thousands of people on a whim, I think of Tony Benn's five questions to ask the powerful:

1. What power have you got?

2. Where did you get it from?

3. In whose interests do you exercise it?

4. To whom are you accountable?

5. And how can we get rid of you?

"If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you" he told parliament in 2001 "you do not live in a democratic system."

Tony Benn would have been 100 years old today. He was a huge inspiration to me and many others. Steeped in the English radical tradition, he also maintained an internationalist outlook to his politics. As we struggle to defend democracy against those who seek to avoid accountability, his five questions provide the starting point for our fightback against authoritarianism.

Photo by Paul Slattery 1985