British politician (1925-2014)
If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.
TONY BENN
interview with Michael Moore, Sicko
People would do well to ask themselves how many of their ambitions and aspirations derive from the type of economic system they inhabit and the insecurity and exhaustion it creates, and question the sense and purpose of a society where control of a large portion of life is abdicated under contract in the labour market, and where immense creativity and potential is stifled by the need to do difficult and repetitive tasks in order to earn a wage.
TONY BENN
Common Sense
A faith is something you die for; a doctrine is something you kill for: there is all the difference in the world.
TONY BENN
The Observer, April 16, 1989
The public have lost confidence in parliament and when that happens democracy is in real trouble, because the secondary function of a democracy is to provide a justification for obedience of the law on the grounds that the people make the laws. If that justification no longer obtains, power will move back to the streets. So great is the scepticism and cynicism about parliament today that popular contempt of the kind which led to cheering crowds when the House caught fire in 1834, may well return.
TONY BENN
Letters to My Grandchildren
I have five questions that I ask people who have power, and I recommend them to the House. If I see someone who is powerful, be it a traffic warden, Rupert Murdoch, the head of a trade union or a Member of Parliament, I ask myself these five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? How can we get rid of you?" That last question is crucial.
TONY BENN
speech in the House of Commons, May 21, 1990
Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.
TONY BENN
The Independent, October 21, 1989
If I had rescued a child from drowning, the national press would no doubt have headlined the story "Benn grabs child."
TONY BENN
remarks to the National Executive Committee, February 26, 1975
Perhaps I could put this to you too: that it is not only the decision that matters, I mean democracy is about how you do things, not just what the outcome is.
TONY BENN
The Sizewell Syndrome
It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his.
TONY BENN
The Benn Heresy
I think people have to have some feeling that they have some role in shaping their own future and that they are not just spectators on the [lives] of kings, presidents, prime ministers and so on which is on the whole what modern democracies -- America, Britain, Europe -- tend to do. They turn people into spectators. Spectators who can be bought by clever advertising to appear to support -- but once they've granted their support then they're expected just to sit back for five years and watch the great and the good they've elected governing the country.... So it's a very imperfect democracy: it has no industrial elements, no democracy in the media or business, and not necessarily much democracy in education. The conclusion I've reached over the years is that democracy is the most controversial idea. Nobody in power wants democracy. The Pope didn't want it: he picks all the cardinals. The Church of England doesn't have it because the Prime Minister picks the leader. Stalin didn't like it. Hitler didn't like it, New Labour doesn't like it. They just want to use an idea to control.
TONY BENN
interview, "Hope is the Key", Share International, January 2003
The British House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.
TONY BENN
The Observer, February 4, 1962
Change from below, the formulation of demands from the populace to end unacceptable injustice, supported by direct action, has played a far larger part in shaping British democracy than most constitutional lawyers, political commentators, historians or statesmen have ever cared to admit. Direct action in a democratic society is fundamentally an educational exercise.
TONY BENN
New Politics, 1970
The way change occurs to begin with, if you come up with a good idea, like heathcare, you're ignored. If you go on you must be mad, absolutely stark-staring bonkers. If you go on after that you're dangerous. Then, if the pressure keeps up there's a pause. And then you can't find anyone at the top who doesn't claim to have thought of it in the first place. That's how progress is made.
TONY BENN
interview with Michael Moore, Sicko
I was radicalised by office and I quickly realised that just getting rid of one government and replacing it with another one in which I had office did not necessarily change anything. A most vivid example was when marchers shouted, 'Thatcher! Thatcher! Out, Out, Out!' only to discover that they had elected Blair! Blair! and little had changed.
TONY BENN
Letters to My Grandchildren
All war represents a failure of diplomacy.
TONY BENN
speech in the House of Commons, Feb. 28, 1991
In our democracy no man should tell another man to break the law, nor should any man break the law to by-pass Parliament. But a person who is punished for breaking an unjust law may if he is sincere and his cause wins public sympathy, create a public demand to have that unjust law changed through Parliament. This is the first and most fundamental principle of British democracy. It has a deep moral significance. Our religious and political liberties rest upon it.
TONY BENN
speech in Bristol, August 4, 1972
Britain today is suffering from galloping obsolescence.
TONY BENN
The Observer, February 2, 1963
In a world where authoritarianism of the left or right is a very real possibility, the question of whether ordinary people can govern themselves by consent is still on trial--as it always has been, and always will be. Beyond parliamentary democracy as we know it, we shall have to find a new popular democracy to replace it.
TONY BENN
speech to the Welsh Council of Labour, May 25, 1968
Ideas are more powerful than guns.
TONY BENN
interview, Wikinews, August 8, 2007
It is we, on this side, who object to dreams of empire, because we think in terms of free association and we believe that the empire that was built up was based on force and domination by this country.
TONY BENN
speech in the House of Commons, September 13, 1956