Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, 2nd Baronet, (25 June 1875 – 17 January 1954) was a British publisher, writer and political publicist. His father,

John Benn Sir John Williams Benn, 1st Baronet, Deputy lieutenant, DL (13 November 1850 – 10 April 1922) was a British politician, particularly associated with London politics. He was the father of the politician William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stan ...

, was a Liberal politician, who had been made a baronet in 1914. He was brother of the Liberal and later Labour politician

William Wedgwood Benn William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate, (10 May 1877 – 17 November 1960) was a British Liberal politician who later joined the Labour Party. A decorated Royal Air Force officer, he was Secretary of State for India between 1929 and ...

and an uncle of the Labour politician

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

Biography

Benn was born in

Oxted Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge District, Tandridge district of Surrey, England. It is at the foot of the North Downs, south-east of Croydon, west of Sevenoaks, and north of East Grinstead. Oxted is a commuter town and Ox ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He attended the

Central Foundation Boys' School Central Foundation Boys' School is a voluntary aided school, voluntary-aided comprehensive secondary school in the London Borough of Islington. It was founded at a meeting in 1865 and opened the following year in Bath Street, before moving to it ...

. As a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

in the Ministry of Munitions and Reconstruction during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he came to believe in the benefits of state intervention in the economy. In the mid-1920s, however, he changed his mind and adopted "the principles of undiluted ''

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( , from , ) is a type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies or regulations). As a system of thought, ''laissez-faire'' ...

''". From his conversion to

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited governmen ...

in the mid-1920s until his death in 1954 Benn published more than twenty books and an equivalent amount of pamphlets propagating his ideas. His ''The Confessions of a Capitalist'' was originally published in 1925 and was still in print twenty years later after selling a quarter of a million copies. In it, he rejected the

labour theory of value The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory of value that argues that the exchange value of a good or service is determined by the total amount of " socially necessary labor" required to produce it. The contrasting system is typically known as ...

and argued that wealth is a by-product of exchange. Benn admired

Samuel Smiles Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His prim ...

and in a letter to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' Benn claimed ideological descent from leading classical liberals:

In the ideal state of affairs, no one would record a vote in an election until he or she had read the eleven volumes of
Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 4 February Dual dating, 1747/8 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.
5 February 1748 Old Style and New Style dates, N.S. 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...
– 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of mo ...
and the whole of the works of
John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...
,
Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...
and Bastiat as well as Morley's ''Life of Cobden''.

Benn was also a member of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club, owned and controlled by its members, on the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it had an all-male membership for ...

and a founder of what would become the

Society for Individual Freedom The Society for Individual Freedom (SIF) is a United Kingdom-based association of libertarians, classical liberals, free-market conservatives and others promoting individual freedom. It has links to the British intelligence community. Earl ...

Family

Benn married at the parish church,

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

, on 3 January 1903 Gwendoline Dorothy Andrews. Their son John Andrews Benn (1904–1984) succeeded as 3rd Baronet.

Ernest Benn Limited

Benn was also a principal and manager of the publishing firm Benn Brothers, later Ernest Benn, Ltd.

Quotes

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."

This quote is often misattributed to

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comed ...

, with slightly different wording ("Politics is the art of looking for trouble; finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly, and applying unsuitable remedies").

Gyles Brandreth Gyles Daubeney Brandreth (born 8 March 1948) is a British broadcaster, writer and former politician. He has worked as a television presenter, theatre producer, journalist, author and publisher. He was a presenter for TV-am's '' Good Morning Bri ...

, Word Play: ''A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language'', Coronet, 2015.

Books

*
The Trade of To-morrow
', (London: Jarrolds Publishers (London) Limited, 1917; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1918) *
The Trade as a Science
' (London: Jarrold & Sons, ca. 1917) *
Trade Parliaments and their Work
' (London: Nisbet & Co. Ltd., 1918) *
Confessions of a Capitalist
' (London: Hutchinson, 1925; London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1948) *
If I Were a Labour Leader
' (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1926) *
The Return to Laisser Faire
' (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1929) *''About Russia'' (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1930) *
Debt
' (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1938) *
Happier Days: Recollections and Reflections
' (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1949) *''Governed to Death'' (London: Society of Individualists, 1948; New York: National Economic Council, 1949) *
The State, the Enemy
' (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1953)

Notes

External links

biography and quotations
Catalogue of Benn's papers
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collect ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benn, Ernest 1875 births 1954 deaths People from Oxted People educated at Central Foundation Boys' School

102 102 may refer to: *102 (number), the number * AD 102, a year in the 2nd century AD * 102 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 102 (ambulance service), an emergency medical transport service in Uttar Pradesh, India * 102 (Clyde) Field Squadron, Royal E ...

British book publishers (people) High sheriffs of the County of London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from the Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious", often shortened to Ernie. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), ...