When I Think Of Cool Britannia I

We Have Been In Recess Since July, And During That Time There Has 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 To Be Called The Bankruptcy Bill [commons], Because We Play No Role.

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

If You Read Mein Kampf, Hitler's Book, Which I Have Outside, I Bought It When I Was Eleven, Hitler Said, "democracy Inevitably Leads To Marxism" - Now You Work That One Out. It's So Interesting That When The Poor Have The Vote They Will Use It To Remove The Privileges Of The Rich.

After The War People Said, 'if You Can Plan For War, Why Can't You Plan For Peace?' When I Was 17, I Had A Letter From The Government Saying, 'dear Mr. Benn, Will You Turn Up When You're 17 1/2? We'll Give You Free Food, Free Clothes, Free Training, Free Accommodation, And Two Shillings, Ten Pence A Day To Just Kill Germans.' People Said, Well, If You Can Have Full Employment To Kill People, Why In God's Name Couldn't You Have Full Employment And Good Schools, Good Hospitals, Good Houses?

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.