Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, originally known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn or Wedgie Benn, but later as Tony Benn, was a British politician who was a Member of Parliamentfor 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. Originally a "moderate", he was identified as being on the party's hard left from the early 1980s, and was widely seen as a key...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth3 April 1925
government mind unions
When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious what they had in mind was not democratic. In Britain, you vote for a government so the government has to listen to you, and if you don't like it you can change it.
catching concerned turn
Madam, if you are so concerned about catching BSE, you should do what I do and turn vegetarian.
enter labor manifesto party written
I did not enter the labor Party forty-seven years ago to have our manifesto written by Dr. Mori, Dr. Gallup and Mr. Harris.
anxiety bill cause good house lawyers lords passed perhaps question send
It's a good question why this bill passed through the Commons so easily, but perhaps lawyers in the House of Lords can cause enough anxiety for them to send it back to the Commons for better consideration.
bristol cause equality justice
championed the cause of equality and justice in Bristol
peace people symbol whenever
Whenever a Concorde flies, people look at it, it's very graceful, it's very beautiful, it is a symbol of peace and international understanding.
argument nuclear principles stand treaty uphold
We would be told that it had been done to uphold the principles of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) - an argument that does not stand up to a moment's examination,
favour life means
At the end of my life, I was told to vote for it for pensioners; I' m not in favour of means tests for pensioners or anybody.
record recorded
I can't go to bed if I haven't done my diary. I always record them just as I've always recorded all my interviews and speeches.
business devote family giving parliament people spend time wife
Normally, people give up parliament because they want to do more business or spend more time with family. My wife said 'why don't you say you're giving up to devote more time to politics?'. And it is what I have done.
diaries diary million tiring
The uncut diaries are 16 million words. It's very tiring to do your diary every night before you go to bed.
build
You have to try to build support around causes. It is uniting to campaign on a single issue, and it is never just a single issue; it's always more than that.
romantic suppose
I think if you're going to be committed to doing anything, you really have to care about it, and I suppose that is a romantic idea.
death frightened switch switched
I'm not frightened about death. I don't know why, but I just feel that at a certain moment your switch is switched off, and that's it. And you can't do anything about it.