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The Civil Service is a bit like a rusty weathercock. It moves with opinion then it stays where it is until another wind moves it in a different direction

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
Different
Direction
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Service
Wind
Bits
Opinion
Rusty
Politics
Stays
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Moves
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Civil

More quotes by Tony Benn

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Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.
Tony Benn
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I believe the more difficult the circumstances, the more people will be inclined to trust those in charge at the moment.
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 police are controlled by the whites, the media are controlled by the whites, the army's controlled by the whites, what hope is there for change? Administration changes from underneath.
Tony Benn
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If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: 'Benn grabs child
Tony Benn
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If ever I left the House of Commons it would be because I wanted to spend more time on politics.
Tony Benn
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My alternative to American superpower is the UN and I might add when China becomes the worlds greatest superpower you will need it too.
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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Bush is actually encouraging the spread of nuclear weapons because the one thing I do know is if Iran did have nuclear weapons they wouldn't be threatening them.
Tony Benn
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Some of the jam we thought was for tomorrow, we've already eaten
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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I opposed the Suez war, I opposed the Falklands war. I opposed the Libyan bombing and I opposed the Gulf war and I never believed that any of those principled arguments lost a single vote - indeed, I think they gained support though that was not why you did it. What has been lacking in Labour politics over a long period is a principled stand
Tony Benn
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The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.
Tony Benn
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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
Tony Benn
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If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?
Tony Benn
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When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered.
Tony Benn
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Britain's continuing membership of the Community would mean the end of Britain as a completely self-governing nation...
Tony Benn
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When Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party, he said, New Labour is a new political party - that was the phrase he used, and I'm so glad he said it because he set up his own party and I'm not a member of it.
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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The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.
Tony Benn