Quote

I'm interested in language. We used to call it the War Office. Then it became the Ministry of Defence. We used to talk about the hydrogen bomb, now we talk about a deterrent. And the language is very cleverly constructed to give the impression that it's not what it is.

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
Call
Constructed
Talk
Defence
Language
Bomb
War
Ministry
Used
Impression
Give
Became
Cleverly
Giving
Interested
Deterrent
Office
Hydrogen

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There is good and bad in all of us and the Church uses the idea of original sin to control us by saying that, if we do not obey the bishops, we will rot in Hell.
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The Tory party is the enemy of democracy.
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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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If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: 'Benn grabs child
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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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The peace movement here is the biggest thing in human history.
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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
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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.
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When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious what they had in mind was not democratic. In Britain, you vote for a government so the government has to listen to you, and if you don't like it you can change it.
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Britain's continuing membership of the Community would mean the end of Britain as a completely self-governing nation...
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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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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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All war represents a failure of diplomacy.
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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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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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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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A faith is something you die for a doctrine is something you kill for there is all the difference in the world.
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The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.
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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.
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Marxism is now a world faith and must be allowed to enter into a continuous dialogue with other world faiths, including religious faiths
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