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
fundamentals politics excuse
The crisis that we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change and not the excuse for postponing it
mean self community
Britain's continuing membership of the Community would mean the end of Britain as a completely self-governing nation
politics benefits strategy
In developing our industrial strategy for the period ahead, we have the benefit of much experience. Almost everything has been tried at least once
jesus names done
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
religious other-worlds politics
Marxism is now a world faith and must be allowed to enter into a continuous dialogue with other world faiths, including religious faiths
party taken psychology
It would be as unthinkable to try to construct the Labour Party without Marx as it would to be to establish university faculties of astronomy,anthropology or psychology without permitting the study of Copernicus, Darwin or Freud, and still expect such faculties to be taken seriously
funny strong humor
I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias.
hate men thinking
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?
community benefits littles
Although socialism is widely held by the establishment to be outdated, the things that are most popular in British society today are little pockets of socialism, where areas of life have been excluded from the crude operation of market forces and are protected for the benefit of the community
mother upset foreigners
The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.
strong ideas government
The Establishment decided Thatcher's ideas were safer with a strong Blair government than with a weak Major government. We are given all these personalities to choose between to disguise the fact that the policies are the same.
father believe house
I don't believe in the hereditary principle in the House of Lords. Imagine going to the dentist, sitting in the chair and he says, 'I'm not a dentist myself, but my father was a dentist and his father before him. Now, open wide!
politics capitalism manage
We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.
mistake making-mistakes made
I've made every mistake - but mistakes are how you learn.