Description
Selected and edited by Ken Coates
Speaking in the debate on the Queen’s Speech in March, 1974, Tony Benn was interrupted by the member for Bridgwater, Mr. Tom King, who demanded to know whether workers in industries about to be nationalised “will have the right to be consulted on the question whether they wish to be nationalised?” Quite rightly Benn replied that if his opponent would think back “over the history of public ownership he will recall that it was the miners and the railwaymen who campaigned continuously for the public ownership of their industries.”
This collection of writings by different hands is partly an attempt to explore the question, why was this so?