Tony Benn Quotes

68 Sourced Quotes

The general election of 1983 has produced one important result that has passed virtually without comment in the media. It is that, for the first time since 1945, a political party with an openly socialist policy has received the support of over eight and a half million people. This is a remarkable development by any standards and it deserves some analysis … the 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made.

Tony Benn
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.

Tony Benn
Middle class Labour leaders are recaptured by the establishment when they die.

Tony Benn
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
People would do well to ask themselves how many of their ambitions and aspirations derive from the type of economic system they inhabit and the insecurity and exhaustion it creates, and question the sense and purpose of a society where control of a large portion of life is abdicated under contract in the labour market, and where immense creativity and potential is stifled by the need to do difficult and repetitive tasks in order to earn a wage.

Tony Benn
[I am against] the Treaty of Rome which entrenches laissez faire as its philosophy and chooses bureaucracy as its administrative method.

Tony Benn
It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his,

Tony Benn
In developing our industrial strategy for the period ahead, we have the benefit of much experience. Almost everything has been tried at least once.

Tony Benn
When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered.

Tony Benn
If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.

Tony Benn
I think the truth is that the Labour Party isn't believed any more because people suspect it will say anything to get votes. The rebuilding of some radical alternatives to Thatcherism - and by that I mean all-party Thatcherism - will require us to do some very difficult things

Tony Benn
I sometimes wish the trade unionists who work in the mass media, those who are writers and broadcasters and secretaries and printers and lift operators of Thomson House would remember that they too are members of our working class movement and have a responsibility to see that what is said about us is true.

Tony Benn
What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?
Questions habitually asked whenever he met with someone in power

Tony Benn
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
I wouldn't like to go to a dentist who, just before he drilled my teeth, told me he was not a dentist himself but that his father had been a very good dentist.
On the hereditary House of Lords

Tony Benn
Of the influence of Parliament:
Through talk, we tamed kings, restrained tyrants, averted revolution.

Tony Benn
I did not enter the Labour Party forty-seven years ago to have our manifesto written by Dr Mori, Dr Gallup and Mr Harris.

Tony Benn
[The Labour Party]'s never been a socialist party, but it's always had socialists in it, just as there are some Christians in the Church, it's an exact parallel.

Tony Benn
Some of the jam we thought was for tomorrow, we've already eaten.

Tony Benn
People say that if we work for the Single European Act, women will get their rights, the water will be purer, and training will be better. That is rubbish. It is part of the attempt to consolidate the EEC.

Tony Benn
The way change occurs to begin with, if you come up with a good idea, like heathcare, you're ignored. If you go on you must be mad, absolutely stark-staring bonkers. If you go on after that you're dangerous. Then, if the pressure keeps up there's a pause. And then you can't find anyone at the top who doesn't claim to have thought of it in the first place. That's how progress is made.

Tony Benn
Having served for nearly half a century in the House of Commons, I now want more time to devote to politics and more freedom to do so.

Tony Benn
The key to any progress is to ask the question why? All the time. Why is that child poor? Why was there a war? Why was he killed? Why is he in power? And of course questions can get you into a lot of trouble, because society is trained by those who run it, to accept what goes on. Without questions we won't make any progress at all.

Tony Benn
My Great-grandfather was a Congregational Minister and my Mother was a Bible scholar, and I was brought up on the Bible, that the story of the Bible was conflict between the kings who had power, and the prophets who preached righteousness. And I was taught to believe in the prophets, got me into a lot of trouble. And my Dad said to me when I was young, "Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm, Dare to let it (be) known."

Tony Benn
The British House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.

Tony Benn
The [pay] policy is principally designed to hold down wages rather than to check inflation. Inflation is being used as an excuse to destroy free trade union bargaining.

Tony Benn
The engineers are taking their stand on grounds of conscience... Conscientious objection to the law is not a criminal act. These people are our people and we should take a principled stand, together.

Tony Benn
Change from below, the formulation of demands from the populace to end unacceptable injustice, supported by direct action, has played a far larger part in shaping British democracy than most constitutional lawyers, political commentators, historians or statesmen have ever cared to admit. Direct action in a democratic society is fundamentally an educational exercise.

Tony Benn
I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

Tony Benn
[Men] who would rather go to jail than betray what they believe to be their duty to their fellow workers and the principles which they hold.

Tony Benn