Tony Banks
I am very sorry to hear that Tony Banks is seriously ill following a stroke and unlikely to recover.
I remember him from the early days at the University of York. We were only 500 students then and Tony was a very visible player in student politics. I wasn't involved in those days - this was the period leading up to widespread student protests and only the far left carried any credibility.
Tony Banks continued through life as an impassioned anti-establishment leftwinger. He was an amusing and colourful character, who, of course, would never manage to last for too long in a government post.
We need people like him in politics for two reasons. Individualists keep politics alive through challenge, but they also makes it fun (and we haven't had much of that recently)
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