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

Tony Benn Quotes

The crisis that we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change and not the excuse for postponing it.

— Tony Benn

I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free.

— Tony Benn

Some of the jam we thought was for tomorrow, we’ve already eaten.

— Tony Benn

If the Queen can reject the advice of a minister on a little thing like a postage stamp, what would happen if she rejected the advice of the Prime Minister on a major matter? If the Crown personally can reject advice, then, of course, the whole democratic facade turns out to be false.

— Tony Benn

I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner.

— Tony Benn

There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons.

— Tony Benn

Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.

— Tony Benn

If you file your waste-paper basket for fifty years, you have a public library.

— Tony Benn

I did not enter the Labour Party 47 years ago to have our manifesto written by Dr Mori, Dr Gallup and Mr Harris.

— Tony Benn

Although socialism is widely held by the establishment to be outdated, the things that are most popular in British society today are little pockets of socialism, where areas of life have been excluded from the crude operation of market forces and are protected for the benefit of the community.

— Tony Benn

We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

— Tony Benn

I’ve made every mistake – but mistakes are how you learn.

— Tony Benn

The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.

— Tony Benn

Choice depends on the freedom to choose and if you are shackled with debt you don’t have the freedom to choose.

— Tony Benn

When you think of the number of men in the world who hate each other, why, when two men love each other, does the church split?

— Tony Benn

Democracy is not just voting every 5 years and watching ‘Big Brother’ in between and wondering why nothing happens. Democracy is what we do and say where we live and work.

— Tony Benn

The people who have sacrificed their view in order to get to the top have very often left no footprints in the sands of time.

— Tony Benn

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

Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

— Tony Benn

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.

— Tony Benn
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