Tony Benn
From BillionQuotes
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Tony Benn (Born 1925)
British Politician[edit]
Sourced
- "If democracy is destroyed in Britain it will be not the communists, Trotskyists or subversives but this House which threw it away. The rights that are entrusted to us are not for us to give away. Even if I agree with everything that is proposed, I cannot hand away powers lent to me for five years by the people of Chesterfield. I just could not do it. It would be theft of public rights."
- Speech in The House of Commons during a debate on the Treaty of Maastricht, 20th November 1991
- "[The Labour Party]'s never been a socialist party, but it's always had socialists in it, just as there are some Christians in the Church, it's an exact parallel."
- Today Programme, 10th February 2006
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Attributed
- "I'll tell you what questions to ask the next time you meet a poweful person: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And, how can we get rid of you?"
- "A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world."
- "All the emphasis on crime and drugs and pornography used to justify the supression of the Internet is really aimed at supressing knowledge of the radical political alternatives that are now available."
- "All war represents a failure of diplomacy."
- "If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realization that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented."
- "The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians."
