Film / News
Tony Benn praises Bristol socialist utopia
As election excitement reaches fever pitch (are you quite sure about this? – Ed), the British Film Institute has made its contribution with a fascinating new online archive entitled Never Mind the Ballots. This comprises 60 films about 19 different elections, ranging from newsreels and amateur films to Party election broadcasts. The undoubted highlight is the long-unseen Vote for Froglet episode of The Clangers.
But if it’s local stuff you’re after, look no further than Bristol Fashion. This can be viewed free on the BFI Player here. It was one of a number of Labour Party election broadcasts masterminded by Bristol South East MP Tony Benn for the municipal and general elections of 1959. Truth be told, it’s punishingly boring and runs for nearly 25 minutes. Unfortunately for the fifties electorate, there were only two TV channels back then, and they both broadcast the film simultaneously in prime time on Wednesday May 6.
Tone starts with a long chat with Barbara Castle about what lying bastards the Tories are. Then it’s off to Bristol for a series of vox pops that will sound pretty familiar more than half a century on:
is needed now More than ever
“I can’t be bothered to vote. Why should I?”
“My vote won’t make any difference.”
“What have they ever done for I?”
Somewhat optimistically, our socialist hero then attempts to enthuse voters by recounting what a marvellous job Bristol’s post-War Labour council has done, interviewing a succession of dull, crusty Aldermen along the way. He noses around Clifton and also visits Barton Hill, where slum clearance has made way for “really wonderful” tower blocks that will apparently make all of Bristol proud. Benn also discusses Labour’s pledge to keep interest rates down to help those with whopping mortgages on their £2,000 homes.
As he makes his way towards the Edmund Burke statue at the end of the film, he gets positively rhapsodic about the achievements of the city’s upstanding civic dignitaries: “For centuries to come, the people of Bristol will point with pride at the fine houses, the beautiful schools and the spacious parks that they have left as their monument.”
So did he sway anyone with his passionate enthusiasm for Bristol’s municipal socialist utopia? Well, Labour retained control of the city council until the early 1960s. But at the General Election of October 1959, the Tories romped home with an increased majority, winning both Bristol North East and Bristol North West from Labour.
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