The Benns

On Newsnight last night, I was soothed to listen to Tony Benn babbling like a mad brook. It is somehow reassuring to know that even deep in senility he might still be allowed out to broadcast his infirm ideas; by which I do not mean to suggest that his ideas have ever been any thing but infirm. In consideration of the vigour with which he embraced unreason as a young man, and to which he has clung with undiminished fealty ever since, one might fairly say that senility for Mr Benn is like a medal awarded for life-long service to madness.

.....There is now on the political scene another Benn: the son, Hilary. Whether the son will ever scale the preposterous heights attained by the father remains to be seen. There have been promising signs, however. In his early days on Ealing Borough Council (1979-1999), Hilary Benn was an active member of "the loony Left". He shares with his father an endearing disinclination to see sense, except for the overwhelming sense of his own righteousness. The future looks bright, therefore.
.....I hereby name the following disorder in honour of Tony and Hilary Benn:

the Benns, n.pl. A largely untreatable disorder that is marked by maniacal claims, distress in reasoning, and often moral collapse, involving an uncontrollable babbling and a dizzy-headed acceptance of one's baseless assertions as the acme of sense, caused by the formation of hot air in the frontal cortex upon too rapid a surfacing of one's conceit. Usage: "His prejudices bobbed to the surface too quickly, and he got the Benns."