Tony Benn had been told by Eric Heffer MP that at the end of the 1986 Blackpool conference the organist had said the Red Flag would not be played. After protests it was but Benn recounts that at the end ‘Neil and Glenys (Kinnock) threw a whole mass of red roses at the delegates from the platform. Benn writes in his diary ‘it was a disgusting spectacle… I rushed out before the crowd left and caught the train to London’.
He did however compose the following poem
The people’s rose in shades of pink
Gets up my nostrils and it stinks
But ‘ere our limbs grow stiff and old
Our old Red Flag we shall unfold
With heads uncovered swear we all
To let rose petals fade and fall
Though moderates flinch and media snear
We’ll keep the red flag flying here
The Peoole’s Flag is deepest pink
It’s not as red as people think…..