Tony Benn Quotes
- It would be inconceivable for the House to adjourn for Easter without recording the fact that last Friday the High Court disallowed an Act which was passed by this House and the House of Lords and received Royal Assent — the Merchant Shipping Act 1988. The High Court referred the case to the European Court…I want to make it clear to the House that we are absolutely impotent unless we repeal Section 2 of the European Communities Act. It is no good talking about being a good European. We are all good Europeans; that is a matter of geography and not a matter of sentiment. Are the arrangements under which we are governed such that we have broken the link between the electorate and the laws under which they are governed? I am an old parliamentary hand — perhaps I have been here too long — but I was brought up to believe, and I still believe, that when people vote in an election they must be entitled to know that the party for which they vote, if it has a majority, will be able to enact laws under which they will be governed. That is no longer true. Any party elected, whether it is the Conservative party or the Labour party can no longer say to the electorate, “Vote for me and if I have a majority I shall pass that law”, because if that law is contrary to Common Market law, British judges will apply Common Market law. - View Quote Details on It would be inconceivable for the House to adjourn for…
- The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over Dachau and Belsen. - View Quote Details on The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton…
- 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. - View Quote Details on Having served for nearly half a century in the House…
- 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. - View Quote Details on If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not…
- When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered. - View Quote Details on When we have a majority we will do it. I…
- [O]ne of the twntieth century’s most committed parlamentarians - View Quote Details on [O]ne of the twntieth century’s most committed parlamentarians
- We want industry to be in the public sector, to change the power structure of our society…We have not yet carved out of public enterprise a wide enough area of management decision which ought properly to be brought within the ambit of the workers themselves. - View Quote Details on We want industry to be in the public sector, to…
- Workers are not going to be fobbed off with a few shares…or by a carbon copy of the German system of co-determination. - View Quote Details on Workers are not going to be fobbed off with a…
- Through me the energy policy of the whole Common Market is being held up. Without opening old wounds, it pleases me no end. - View Quote Details on Through me the energy policy of the whole Common Market…
- The general election of 1983 has produced one important result that has passed virtually without comment in the media. It is that, for the first time since 1945, a political party with an openly socialist policy has received the support of over eight and a half million people. This is a remarkable development by any standards and it deserves some analysis… the 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made. - View Quote Details on The general election of 1983 has produced one important result…
- Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, 1993<ref name=cdc>The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Robert Andrews, Columbia University Press, 1993, ISBN 0231071949, 9780231071949</ref> A similar quotation is almost invariably attributed to Gandhi, but more likely derives from a 1914 US trade union address<ref name=acwa>”And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that, is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.” General Executive Board Report and Proceedings [of The] Biennial Convention, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 1914. Google Books </ref> - View Quote Details on Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, 1993<ref name=cdc>The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations,…
- Well I came across Marx rather late in life actually, and when I read him, two things: first of all I realised that he’d come to the conclusion about capitalism which I’d come to much later, and I was a bit angry he’d thought of it first; and secondly, I see Marx who was an old Jew, as the last of the Old Testament Prophets, this old bearded man working in the British Library, studying capitalism, that’s what ‘Das Kapital’ was about, it was an explanation of British capitalism. And I thought to myself, ‘Well anyone could write a book like that, but what infuses, what comes out of his writing, is the passionate hostility to the injustice of capitalism. He was a Prophet, and so I put him in that category as an Old Testament Prophet. - View Quote Details on Well I came across Marx rather late in life actually,…
- 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. - View Quote Details on All the emphasis on crime and drugs and pornography used…
- It will enable a Labour Government to do all they want under Labour’s Programme for Britain…It will give us the powers to control all the oil companies, all the multinationals, to fix their prices and their distribution systems. - View Quote Details on It will enable a Labour Government to do all they…
- 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. - View Quote Details on If democracy is destroyed in Britain it will be not…
- Anyone from abroad will tell you that it is the class system that really lies at the root of our problems, economic and industrial. The House of Lords symbolises that. - View Quote Details on Anyone from abroad will tell you that it is the…
- The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians. - View Quote Details on The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for…
- [I am against] the Treaty of Rome which entrenches laissez faire as its philosophy and chooses bureaucracy as its administrative method. - View Quote Details on [I am against] the Treaty of Rome which entrenches laissez…
- What we lack in Government is entrepreneurial ability. - View Quote Details on What we lack in Government is entrepreneurial ability.
- 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.” - View Quote Details on My Great-grandfather was a Congregational Minister and my Mother was…
- [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. - View Quote Details on [The Labour Party]’s never been a socialist party, but it’s…
- Britain is the only colony in the British Empire and it is up to us now to liberate ourselves. - View Quote Details on Britain is the only colony in the British Empire and…
About Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925 ), known as Tony Benn, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British politician on the left of the Labour Party.
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