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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.

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
Always
Round
Never
Cross
Benighted
World
Burden
Humanitarianism
Careful
Natives
Poor
Imperialism
White
Humanitarian
Remember
Presented
Going
Sets

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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
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It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.
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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
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Cabinet members are soon overwhelmed by the insistent demands of running their departments. On the whole, a period in high office consumers intellectual capital it does not create it....The less ministers know at the outset, the more dependent they are on the only sources of available knowledge the permanent officials.
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If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: 'Benn grabs child
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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?
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I now want more time to devote to politics and more freedom to do so.
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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.
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The present combination of corporate or commercial control theoretically answerable to politically appointed Boards of Governors is not in any sense a democratic enough procedure to control the power the broadcasters have.
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The First World War created the Second World War because that was a war between three grandsons of Queen Victoria: The King of England, the Kaiser and the Tsar married Queen Victoria's granddaughter. And that triggered Communism in Russia and Fascism in Germany and led to the Second World War.
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I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner
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The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.
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There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.
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No medieval monarch in the whole of British history ever had such power as every modern British Prime Minister has in his or her hands. Nor does any American President have power approaching this
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I think there are two ways in which people are controlled - first of all frighten people and secondly demoralize them.
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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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Some of the jam we thought was for tomorrow, we've already eaten
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Workers are not going to be fobbed off with a few shares...or by a carbon copy of the German system of co-determination.
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Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.
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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.
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