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I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner

Tony Benn

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Tony Benn
Age: 88 †
Born: 1925
Born: April 3
Died: 2014
Died: March 14
Autobiographer
Diarist
Former Member Of The European Parliament
Politician
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn
Commoners
Peer
Reluctant
Persistent
Peers
Politics
Commoner

More quotes by Tony Benn

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If you read Mein Kampf, Hitler's book, which I have outside, I bought it when I was eleven, Hitler said, democracy inevitably leads to Marxism - now you work that one out. It's so interesting that when the poor have the vote they will use it to remove the privileges of the rich.
Tony Benn
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A faith is something you die for a doctrine is something you kill for there is all the difference in the world.
Tony Benn
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If you're going to make sense of politics you have to have a historical perspective and also recognise that you have to work with people you don't agree with.
Tony Benn
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I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias.
Tony Benn
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If I were the American President I would rather be popular than have the power the destroy the world because however many puppets they have all over the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and so on - they haven't got support from the people.
Tony Benn
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Democracy is not just voting every 5 years and watching 'Big Brother' in between and wondering why nothing happens. Democracy is what we do and say where we live and work
Tony Benn
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I'm a democrat - I don't support Bush, I don't support Blair, I don't support Bin Laden.
Tony Benn
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When you get to No 10, you've climbed there on a little ladder called 'the status quo'. And when you are there, the status quo looks very good
Tony Benn
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She believes in something. It is an old-fashioned idea
Tony Benn
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I do not share the general view that market forces are the basis for political liberty. Every time I see a homeless person living in a cardboard box in London, I see that person as a victim of market forces. Everytime I see a pensioner who cannot manage, I know that he is a victim of market forces
Tony Benn
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The peace movement didn't stop the Iraq but I think that Blair would not be able to go along and support an Iranian war.
Tony Benn
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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
Tony Benn
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There is no connection between imperialism and democracy. I mean when we ran an Empire which we did when I was born, there was no democracy anywhere.
Tony Benn
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There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.
Tony Benn
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If you want your debt lifted you've got to sell your school and your hospitals.
Tony Benn
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The way a government treats refugees is very instructive.
Tony Benn
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It is tempting to deny, but if you deny you confirm what you won't deny.
Tony Benn
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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 realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented.
Tony Benn
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The crisis that we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change and not the excuse for postponing it
Tony Benn
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The peace movement here is the biggest thing in human history.
Tony Benn