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Tony Benn
120 quotes
“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.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (20 November 1991) during a debate on the Treaty of Maastricht.
“The word 'socialism' on my poster has not lost me a single vote. People will support you if you're serious. My complaint about the Labour movement is that it hasn't done any teaching for 40 years; it has always been on the defensive. Thatcher was successful because she was a teacher. Her values, of course, were rotten.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks during the general election campaign, quoted in The Times (3 April 1992), p. 12
“Had a long talk to the Chinese First Secretary at the embassy — a very charming man called Liao Dong — and said how much I admired Mao Tse tung or Zedong, the greatest man of the twentieth century. He said that I couldn't admire Mao more than he did. I asked him how Mao was viewed now. He said Mao was 70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong; the Cultural Revolution didn't work. He said he had been named after Mao — it was amusing.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal entry for 6 June 1996 in Free at Last!: Diaries, 1991-2001 (2003) p. 371
“Having served for nearly half a century in the House of Commons, I now want more time to devote to politics and more freedom to do so.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a letter to his Constituency Labour Party, as quoted by Paul Waugh "Benn retires to spend more time with his politics", The Independent (28 June 1999), p. 5.
“I heard from Jeremy Corybn in the House of Commons yesterday that the alleged cancellation of the world debt was a complete fraud, because a condition has been imposed that any country that had its debt cancelled had to privatise its assets; so that’s where the money will be made. I mean, if ever the Marxist critique of capitalism was correct, its on this. Somebody wrote in the “New Yorker” the other day, ‘Marx may have been wrong about communism, but he was certainly right about capitalism.’”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Tony Benn Free At Last! Diaries 1991 – 2001 Edited by Ruth Winstone, Published by Arrow Books in 2003, P.562
“Tony Benn: I’ll tell you the problem. You never interview any of these people. You just show them shouting, fighting and in funny hats, making out they’re a lot of nutters.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“JS: Well we did have a chap at the top of the programme actually.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“TB: Well, I didn’t see that, but in general ‘protest’ is the wrong word; it’s the beginning of a political campaign. That’s how apartheid ended, that’s how men got the vote, it was by putting pressure on parliament.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“JS: Right, do you find yourself identifying with Tony Benn, or is he of a different era and not something you find a resonance with?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paul Mobbs, Cyber-activist: I think we’re all going in the same direction. Campaigning is all about managing change and different views of how we manage that change. People today are using the Internet, much like in the Civil War people used pamphlets. We’ve just moved on and it’s got a lot more technical.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“JS: There’s no real identifiable ideology behind what’s going on here in Seattle, I mean.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“TB: It’s anti-capitalist, it’s anti-capitalist.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: News, Public Relations and Power Edited by Simon Cottle, 2003, P.160-161 Excerpts from a a news discussion dated December the 1st 1999.
“INTERVIEWER: According to one analysis, the economic history of the last 20 years is a story about governments retreating from the marketplace and allowing free markets to reign. Do you buy that?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“INTERVIEWER: You've talked about the academics and the monetarists and so on. In Great Britain, the charge to undo the welfare state was led by Keith Joseph. Keith Joseph was concerned about a sense of freedom. What's the difference between your sense of freedom and his sense of freedom?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“INTERVIEWER: Would you accept that the British economy by the mid- to late '70s was a mess?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“INTERVIEWER: But the nationalized industries, do you think they were a success in the late '70s?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have been in recess since July, and during that time there have been a fuel crisis, a Danish no vote, the collapse of the Euro and a war in the middle east, but what is our business tomorrow? The Insolvency Bill [Lords]. It ought be called the Bankruptcy Bill [Commons], because we play no role.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (23 October 2000), cited in Adam Tomkins, "What is Parliament for?" in Bamforth N. and Leyland P. (eds.), Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution, Oxford, Hart, 2003, p. 53.
“The big question today is 'Will globalisation allow democracy to survive?' On one side we have the multinationals, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. I want to help to redress the balance on the other side.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Andrew Walker (10 March 2001), quoted in "Tony Benn: End of an era", BBC News (10 March 2001).
“I was the first MP to table a motion condemning apartheid in South Africa. When I first met Nelson Mandela he was a terrorist, when I next saw him, he was a Nobel Prize winner and the President of South Africa.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Andrew Walker (10 March 2001), quoted in "Tony Benn: End of an era", BBC News (10 March 2001).
“People at the top do not want to share their power. They’ve always got some marvellous reason: I’m following my religion; I’m following the laws of economics. Even Stalin: I’m representing the vanguard of the working class, so please don’t cause trouble. That is the battle that every generation has, and yet we mustn’t be pessimistic about it...”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tony Benn interview “Hope is the key, Share International” (January 2003)
“The Morning Star had an article by George Galloway, and in it he said, "Britain is currently run by a blood-splattered, lying, crooked group of war criminals." Now, first of all I think that's a totally ineffective way of getting your case across, but secondly, last November George pleaded with me to try to persuade the National Executive to let him stay in the party. So if I'd succeeded, he would have been still a member of a party currently run by a "blood-splattered, lying, crooked group of war criminals". It put me off George Galloway in a fairly fundamental way.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007, London: Hutchinson, 2007, p. 185.
“My Great-grandfather was a Congregational Minister and my Mother was a Bible scholar, and I was brought up on the Bible, that the story of the Bible was conflict between the kings who had power, and the prophets who preached righteousness. And I was taught to believe in the prophets, got me into a lot of trouble. And my Dad said to me when I was young, "Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm, Dare to let it (be) known.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by Kevin Zeese in Counterpunch (19 December 2005).
“[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.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Today programme (10 February 2006).
“Ideas are more powerful than guns.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wikinews interview with Tony Benn (8 August 2007), quote from approx 24min45 sec into interview.
“I rang John Rees because I heard that George Galloway had attacked the Respect party at some conference, so I thought it would be useful to know what was going on. John said that George was very much a loner, but that he was in contact with some fundamentalist Muslims in his constituency; that on a left-right basis he was on the right, not the left.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine: The Last Diaries London: Arrow Books 2014 [2013], p. 40.
“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly, demoralize them.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don’t vote. They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“Choice depends on the freedom to choose and if you are shackled with debt you don’t have the freedom to choose.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007).
“The way change occurs to begin with, if you come up with a good idea, like healthcare, 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 (1925–2014) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Michael Moore in the movie Sicko (2007) Probably derived from older version:
“First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Robert Andrews, Columbia University Press, 1993, , 9780231071949. A similar quotation is almost invariably attributed to Gandhi, but more likely derives from a 1914 US trade union …
“When you think of the number of men in the world who hate each other, why, when two men love each other, does the church split?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tony Benn: The glorious revolutionary", The Journal (26 March 2008).
“The key to any progress is to ask the question why? All the time. Why is that child poor? Why was there a war? Why was he killed? Why is he in power? And of course questions can get you into a lot of trouble, because society is trained by those who run it, to accept what goes on. Without questions we won't make any progress at all.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Creating Freedom (2013).
“I never liked meat - and my son Hilary, 30 years ago, said, 'If the world ate the grain instead of feeding it to animals and killing them, there would be enough food for everybody,'”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jeremy Corbyn and other famous vegetarian politicians, BBC News, 5 September 2017
“In Labour Governments we did our best to make capitalism work in a civilised way. And we failed. It never can work. It will always exploit and oppress the people.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an obituary: Tony Benn: an outstanding leader of the British left by Rob Sewell 14 March 2014
“I must tell the House quite frankly that if I were confronted with a Japanese at this present moment and were asked to tell him that I believed that he was wrong in the treatment of those British prisoners in his hands, I could not but accept a similar criticism from him on the question of the atom bomb. I should be quite unable to avoid it. I am afraid I must say on the question of principle here involved—this question of moral principle—that I believe it to be humbug, when so many people, women, children, old folk, were killed by the atom bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. For every individual photograph that could be produced of a wounded and battered British prisoner of war in Japanese hands, I think one could find an equally horrible photograph of a victim of the atomic bomb. [Interruption.] An hon. Friend of mine says that the two things are not comparable. I do not myself believe that it is possible to draw any distinctions in war between the brutalities on both sides.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (10 May 1951)
“With inherited liberal principles, I feel that the free movement of all people is a good thing and one to be encouraged. ... The Declaration of Human Rights has for one of its Articles the right of the human being to take a nationality, to change it, and not to be denied the right arbitrarily to change it. I realise it is not as easy as that, but most of the difficulties are definable difficulties based on facts and situations which the economic planners now available to Government Departments should be able to grasp and measure. I believe that the basic problem which prevents more immigration is an economic one. ... [T]here is a nearer approach to the ideal of universal admission in the United States than there is here. I think we could learn something from that. ... If we were to work out some form of migration policy based on these lines we would be doing some service to that free movement of populations which is a vital prerequisite to understanding in all parts of the world.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (26 July 1951)
“The demand for more popular power is building up most insistently in industry, and the pressure for industrial democracy has now reached such a point that a major change is now inevitable, at some stage. What is happening is not just a respectful request for consultation before management promulgates its decisions. Workers are not going to be fobbed off with a few shares...or by a carbon copy of the German system of co-determination. The campaign is very gradually crystallizing into a demand for real workers' control. However revolutionary the phrase may sound; however many Trotskyite bogeys it may conjure up, that is what is being demanded and that is what we had better start thinking about.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Towards workers' control', The Times (5 September 1970), p. 12
“[The first principle of British democracy is] our prime duty to each other and to what our conscience tells us to be right. If this leads individuals into conflict with the law, those individuals must be ready to take the consequences non-violently. 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 (1925–2014) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Bristol (4 August 1972), quoted in The Times (5 August 1972), p. 2
“[The third principle of British democracy was that national sovereignty belonged to the people.] We lend it to our representatives to use for five years at a time. ... Any Government or MP pretending to give away these sovereign powers without the explicit consent of the people is acting unconstitutionally. Laws that pretend to take away these powers permanently have no moral authority. ... [Heath's government] will fail because they are trying to act contrary to centuries of British tradition. The people will not have it. But the resistance that is building up is not, in any sense, revolutionary.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Bristol (4 August 1972), quoted in The Times (5 August 1972), p. 2
“We have come to the end of a chapter in our industrial history. The industrial system to which the Tory Party adheres—at least officially and in its manifestos—has failed us. ... It is no use blaming working people or the unions if they have to work in ancient factories with obsolete equipment producing old-fashioned goods at unecomonic prices and earning low wages as well. Working people not only are not responsible for the weakness of British manufacturing industry. They have hitherto been denied the tools and tackle that they needed to put it right. ... We have got to make a fresh start now. We have got to get investment up, and to get it up as soon as we can. If the market economy cannot or will not give us that investment, we must do it direct.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (17 February 1975) on the Second Reading of the Industry Bill
“We have confused the real issue of parliamentary democracy, for already there has been a fundamental change. The power of electors over their law-makers has gone, the power of MPs over Ministers has gone, the role of Ministers has changed. The real case for entry has never been spelled out, which is that there should be a fully federal Europe in which we become a province. It hasn't been spelled out because people would never accept it. We are at the moment on a federal escalator, moving as we talk, going towards a federal objective we do not wish to reach. In practice, Britain will be governed by a European coalition government that we cannot change, dedicated to a capitalist or market economy theology. This policy is to be sold to us by projecting an unjustified optimism about the Community, and an unjustified pessimism about the United Kingdom, designed to frighten us in. Jim quoted Benjamin Franklin, so let me do the same: "He who would give up essential liberty for a little temporary security deserves neither safety nor liberty." The Common Market will break up the UK because there will be no valid argument against an independent Scotland, with its own Ministers and Commissioner, enjoying Common Market membership. We shall be choosing between the unity of the UK and the unity of the EEC. It will impose appalling strains on the Labour movement...I believe that we want independence and democratic self-government, and I hope the Cabinet in due course will think again.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech given in the Cabinet meeting to discuss Britain's membership of the EEC, as recorded in his diary (18 March 1975), Against the Tide. Diaries 1973-1976 (London: Hutchinson, 1989), pp. 346-347
“The industrial crisis now facing Britain is far deeper than is generally appreciated; and so therefore the scale and scope of the national industrial strategy needed to overcome it is correspondingly greater. ... It is no exaggeration to say that Britain's whole future depends upon major investment in the expansion and reequipment of our manufacturing plants, aimed at restoring British industry to a competitive position in world and home markets. Such an investment programme will be a huge and lengthy task. It would involve us as a nation in spending some £6,000m a year on capital investment in manufacturing, double what we have been spending.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Article for Trade and Industry, quoted in The Times (4 April 1975), p. 1
“He has a deep contempt for Britain, the British people and parliamentary democracy. He is trying to climb back to power via the Treaty of Rome, and put Britain under government from Brussels for ever. In 1970 Mr Heath solemnly promised that he would not take Britain into the Common Market without the full-hearted consent of the British people. He broke his pledged word then, and he now says he will not accept a 'No' vote on Thursday. Heath promised more jobs and higher living standards inside the EEC. These promises were all broken, and he now tells us we are so poor we cannot come out; beggars can't be choosers. That is false, too. Heath's leadership has been a total disaster for the British people. The Tory Party threw him out.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at an anti-EEC rally (3 June 1975), quoted in 'Heath attack by Mr Benn', The Times (4 June 1975), p. 6
“[Written shortly after the death of Mao Zedong (the older Mao Tse Tung transliteration is used in the source)] In my opinion, he will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — figures of the twentieth century: a schoolteacher who transformed China, released it from civil war and foreign attack and constructed a new society there. His influence throughout the world has been immense, based to some extent on power I suppose, but also on his tremendous achievements ... [H]e certainly towers above any other twentieth century figure I can think of in his philosophical contribution and his military genius.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a diary entry (9 September 1976), as cited in The Benn Diaries 1940–1990 (Arrow, [1995] 1996), p. 367
“If Parliament, public and press have now braced themselves to accept the plain and obvious truth that Cabinet discussions are interesting, vigorous and sometimes revolve around alternative policies, why should even the disclosure of an outline of the points at issue—while these discussions are in progress—be guarded against so relentlessly and so ineffectively from any risk of publicity? ... Secrecy in decision-making does not occur by accident or default. It is because knowledge is power, and no government willingly gives up power to the Commons, the public, or anyone else. Open government would disclose more about the processes of decision-making, including the workings of the Cabinet committee system, reveal the roles of officials and advisers, and involve both admitting and encouraging pressure upon ministers. ... If parliamentary democracy is, as I believe, a unique system of government, partly because it allows us to learn from our own mistakes in time to correct them, the raw material of that experience must be made available in time to use it for that purpose.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Press Gallery luncheon (14 February 1977), quoted in The Times (15 February 1977), p. 4
“North Sea oil could be a mask which conceals the decline of our economy. Don't think it will necessarily solve our problems. Britain was in a process of de-industrialization and it was essential that the revenue from oil should be used for reinvestment in industry. I have seen industry after industry in this country upon which our living standards rest going down because of the lack of investment. I have seen it in shipbuilding, aircraft, machine tools, the motor industry, motor cycles and electronics. Public investment and ownership were critical parts of the recovery of a society whose living standards and public service rested upon manufacturers.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the annual conference of the London Co-operative Society's Political Committee (16 October 1977), quoted in The Times (17 October 1977), p. 17
“He said he did not approach the EMS proposal in a theological way. In his view the West German Government wanted it in order to cripple their competitors; the French wanted it because they wished to be equal to the Germans; and the EEC commissioners wanted it because they believed in a federal Europe. "It would mean that a British government could only get permission to devalue, if we wanted to, if we made big cuts in public expenditure. It would be quite impossible to implement Labour's Programme, 1976 and party conference decisions if we went into EMS. We ought to make it clear...that we are not prepared to go into it and we would veto it if it was not in the national interest.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks during the joint meeting of the Cabinet and the Labour Party National Executive Committee (23 October 1978), quoted in The Times (24 October 1978), p. 1