Tony Benn Quotes

68 Sourced Quotes

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
A quotation is what a speaker wants to say—unlike a soundbite which is all that an interviewer allows you to say.

Tony Benn
What we lack in Government is entrepreneurial ability.

Tony Benn
This huge Commission building in Brussels, in the shape of a cross, is absolutely un-British. I felt as if I were going as a slave to Rome; the whole relationship was wrong. Here was I, an elected man who could be removed, doing a job, and here were these people with more power than I had and no accountability to anybody... My visit confirmed in a practical way all my suspicions that this would be the decapitation of British democracy without any countervailing advantage, and the British people, quite rightly, wouldn't accept it. There is no real benefit for Britain.

Tony Benn
We have been in recess since July, and during that time there have been a fuel crisis, a Danish no vote, the collapse of the Euro and a war in the middle east, but what is our business tomorrow? The Insolvency Bill [Lords]. It ought be called the Bankruptcy Bill [Commons], because we play no role.

Tony Benn
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

Tony Benn
If I rescued a child from drowning, the Press would no doubt headline the story 'Benn grabs child.'

Tony Benn
For those without personal wealth or political authority a trade union card and a ballot paper are the only two routes to political power.

Tony Benn