Tony Benn, the man who hated being called a veteran, never had his sharp mind dulled with age.
Or his sharp tongue.
Everyone could be a target, from the civil service, to the Tories, from Marx, to Jesus, and often US Presidents. Margaret Thatcher was his great adversary, but a woman he admired for her convictions, saying, "She believes in something, it is an old fashioned idea".
As well as adversarial, his speeches were also inspirational, in the word's most literal sense. Here are his best bit, there's too many to chose from.