CRAIG BROWN: The night Tony Benn's 長，率いる was in a noose

By Craig Brown for the Daily Mail

Published: 01:17 BST, 27 March 2014 | Updated: 01:18 BST, 27 March 2014

For my last column, I delved into the diaries ― no-nonsense, 事柄-of-fact ― that Tony Benn kept for nearly 70 years. Every now and then, these diaries 記録，記録的な／記録する a dream, or, more 一般的に, a nightmare.

Awake, Benn was a stranger to 疑問, 十分な of breezy self-保証／確信, forever setting the world to 権利s. But asleep, he could be overtaken by terror and 不確定.

For instance, on April 21, 1977, 飛行機で行くing with a 代表 on a Boeing 707 支援する from Riyadh, ‘my 長，率いる rolled all night and I dreamed of awful 拷問s in Saudi Arabia’.

Nightmares: Awake, Benn was a stranger to 疑問, 十分な of breezy self-保証／確信, forever setting the world to 権利s. But asleep, he could be overtaken by terror and 不確定

The next month, he experiences a nightmare that is even creepier. On May 18, 1977, ‘I was standing by a 深い 固める／コンクリート 炭坑，オーケストラ席 in a 刑務所，拘置所 with a noose 一連の会議、交渉／完成する my neck. I swayed over this 炭坑，オーケストラ席, looking 負かす／撃墜する and knowing that with the 減少（する） the rope would break my neck.

‘I swayed over this 炭坑，オーケストラ席, looking 負かす／撃墜する and knowing that with the 減少（する） the rope would break my neck, and there was this tremendous compulsion to jump, but I didn’t. I woke up in a sweat and 設立する that it was 3.50.’

Awake, he 申し込む／申し出s this 解釈／通訳: ‘Perhaps it meant that I have managed to 支配（する）／統制する my self-destructive 勧めるs; or maybe I was visualising in 劇の form the problems of 辞職 or 解雇／（訴訟の）却下 from the 閣僚 over direct 選挙s.’

It seems likely that the latter 解釈／通訳 was 訂正する: his political career was all-important to him, and though his 良心 must often have told him frequently to 辞職する, his ambition always won the day.

He was a 生存者: when he woke from 激しい nightmares of 廃虚 and despair, it never took him long to snap 支援する into the here-and-now.?

‘Last night I dreamt that I visited a factory in Kirkby and 設立する that all the 器具／備品 had been taken out, and there were wires hanging from the 天井 and gaps in the 床に打ち倒す where all the basic machine 道具s had been torn out,’ he 令状s on October 26, 1979.

‘There was just one candle, and by this candlelight 50 労働者s were trying to turn the rubbish, the old pieces of 支持を得ようと努めるd and stuff, into little 反対するs to sell. It was too much for me, a nd in my dream I burst into 涙／ほころびs and put my 手渡すs over my 注目する，もくろむs and wept uncontrollably before speaking to them.”

But, upon waking, he is quick to 回復する: ‘Anyway, the papers this morning are 十分な of the 開発s in the party. Callaghan is rumoured to be thinking of 辞職するing .?.?.’

Twenty years later, when it comes to the 可能性 of retiring from the House of ありふれたs, his dreams 表明する his inner 恐れるs.

His 入ること／参加（者） for March 8, 1999, sees him preoccupied with the 決定／判定勝ち（する）: ‘I am 現実に in やめる a 明言する／公表する about it’. The に引き続いて night, ‘I was 絶対 exhausted and had awful dreams.

'I dreamed of cats and birds glued to bits of rubber so that they couldn’t escape.’

This nightmare must surely symbolise his twin 苦悩s over whether to leave or stay put.

As に適するs an ambitious 政治家，政治屋, over the course of his political career each of his party leaders pops up in his dreams.

Invariably, they are trying to 軍隊 him to do something he doesn’t want. ‘I had a strange dream last night,’ he 記録，記録的な／記録するs on December 26, 1998.

‘I dreamed that I was parking my car 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the corner and Tony Blair （機の）カム up and said, “You can’t park here ― the parking 制限s 適用する on Saturday.”

‘I said, “It’s a public holiday ― ボクシング Day.”

‘And he said, “I’m sorry, but the parking 制限s 適用する becaus e it is Saturday ― anyway we’ve got to 生成する the income to keep the traffic wardens paid.”

Tony Benn died on March 14 老年の 88. His diaries will 確実にする that his dreams live on

Once out of 議会, his dreams grow more and more apocalyptic, his 解答s more high-faluting.

‘I had this dream that I was wrong about everything, and I had to go today to South Africa to see Nelson Mandela,’ he 令状s on August 3, 2007.

A year later, on November 20, 2008, ‘I have nightmares every morning. I am 圧倒するd by the feeling that the world ― Britain and the world ― is going to 崩壊（する） through 不足 of oil.

‘I visualise circumstances where people at the 最高の，を越す of tower 封鎖するs would find that the 解除する couldn’t be run because there was no energy; doctors couldn’t climb 24 flights of steps to look after them if they were ill; and the whole of society comes to an end.’

Through the coming years, he has nightmares that he is dead; that he is 罠にかける in 議会, and can’t leave without the Whips’ 許可; and, most vivid and horrifying of all, on March 2, 2009, ‘that the house was covered in green わずかな／ほっそりした and fungus, and I went upstairs and in the bedroom was Caroline (Benn’s late wife) lying on the bed, and the bed was a 完全にする mess of papers and things.

She was 絶対 white, her 注目する，もくろむs were red, and a fattish woman was cutting 抱擁する chunks of 血まみれの meat and giving it to her to eat.’

Tony Benn is now at 残り／休憩（する）. His diaries will 確実にする that his dreams live on, though they are far 除去するd from the dreams of 司法（官） and 救済 that 形態／調整d his life when wide awake.