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It is not surprising that more and more people are coming to the conclusion that the ballot box is no longer an instrument that will secure political solutions... They can see that the parliamentary democracy we boast of is becoming a sham.

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
People
Secure
Parliamentary
Instruments
Ballot
Solutions
Ballots
Becoming
Boast
Coming
Surprising
Longer
Instrument
Democracy
Boxes
Political
Conclusion
Sham

More quotes by 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.
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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.
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The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.
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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.
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Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.
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I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias.
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There may be a legal obligation to obey, but there will be no moral obligation to obey. When it comes to history, it will be the people who broke the law for freedom who will be remembered and honoured.
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I think to understand how the democratic process works is the most important thing, so people don't get frightened by it, and get put off, and give up.
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Remember, imperialism is always presented as humanitarian: the white man's burden, the cross going round the world, the poor benighted natives, the sun never sets. . . So you have to be very careful about humanitarianism.
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I'd rather die on my feet making a speech than die of Alzheimer's - and that's what I'm planning to do.
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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.
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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.
Tony Benn
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Choice depends on the freedom to choose and if you are shackled with debt you don't have the freedom to choose.
Tony Benn
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I think there are two ways in which people are controlled - first of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them.
Tony Benn
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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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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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People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote. They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.
Tony Benn
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I don't want to commit myself in advocating a definite republican constitution which will get bogged down with the question of who would elect the President and when.
Tony Benn
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There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up.
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