The Wit and Wisdom of... Tony Benn, Mk. II

War is easy to talk about; there are not many people left of the generation which remembers it. The right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup served with distinction in the last war. I never killed anyone but I wore uniform. I was in London during the blitz in 1940, living where the Millbank tower now stands, where I was born. Some different ideas have come in there since. Every night, I went to the shelter in Thames house. Every morning, I saw docklands burning. Five hundred people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying. 

Are not Arabs and Iraqis terrified? Do not Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

Every Member of Parliament who votes for the Government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will. That decision is for every hon. Member to take. 

In my parliamentary experience, this a unique debate. We are being asked to share responsibility for a decision that we will not really be taking but which will have consequences for people who have no part to play in the brutality of the regime with which we are dealing.

On 24 October 1945--the right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup will remember--the United Nations charter was passed. The words of that charter are etched on my mind and move me even as I think of them. It says:

"We the peoples of the United Nations have determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life-time has brought untold sorrow to mankind".

That was that generation's pledge to this generation, and it would be the greatest betrayal of all if we voted to abandon the charter, take unilateral action and pretend that we were doing so in the name of the international community.

Tony Benn, speaking in the House of Commons when the Labour government proposed bombing Iraq to send a message to Saddam Hussein, 17th February 1998.

The Astonishing Wit and Wisdom of... Well, I Can Barely Believe It...

Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday's attacks. And so were Muslims all across the world. Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens.

These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that.

The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.

The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.

When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race -- out of every race.

America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.

Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear cover must be not intimidated in America. That's not the America I know. That's not the America I value.

I've been told that some fear to leave; some don't want to go shopping for their families; some don't want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they're afraid they'll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in America.

Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.

This is a great country. It's a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do.

I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by. And may God bless us all.

Speech by US President George W. Bush, 17th September 2001, at the Islamic Centre in Washington DC.

End of the Iron Lady

Today marks a quarter of a century since the game was up.

It was a day that dawned like many others. By and large, Britons went about their ordinary lives. In the centre of power, the Cabinet arrived at Number 10 for their meeting. And they were greeted by a bombshell. The Prime Minister was resigning. The Thatcher years were, at long last, coming to an end.

It had been a long few weeks. Rising discontent over the poll tax, European policy and the Prime Minister's style had come to a head when the Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe, resigned. In his excellent resignation speech, he threw down the gauntlet to the Conservative Party- decide or be damned. His call to arms brought Michael Heseltine, one time Defence Secretary and party conference darling, out of the shadows and into the arena against Mrs Thatcher. The first ballot was to be held on November 20th 1990.

It was in Paris that the news was broken to her. She had won the support of 54.8% of Tory MPs. Under the rules, she needed a mere two more votes. It was painfully close, and also badly damaging. She had promised that, were she to fall short, she would consult with party colleagues about what to do next. Instead, she marched out of the British embassy, straight onto BBC news, bowling over poor John Sargeant, and announced she was entering the second ballot.

But it was too late. When she returned to London, support for her was haemorrhaging. She was persuaded to consult her Cabinet, one by one. Some promised to fight with her to the end. A handful, notably Ken Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind, told her that her time was over. Most said the same thing. They would back her, but she would lose; that would mean her arch-rival as Prime Minister. So she slept on it. Although whether she actually slept is not recorded.

Which brings us back to November 22nd 1990. She told the Cabinet as they met. "It's a funny old world," she famously remarked. And she had a point. She had been voted into office in 1987 by 13.7 million people, had won the support of almost 55% of Tory MPs, and nominally had the support of the Cabinet behind her. Yet she was the one heading off into the sunset, while the man who had dared to challenge her lived to fight another day.

But her time was up. And yet, many Conservatives now consider the Cabinet's decision to ditch Mrs Thatcher to be the wrong one. They feel that they should have allowed the electorate to deliver the killer blow. As it was, they created the myth of the Lady Betrayed, unbeaten and loved by the public. This myth was a wound in the Conservative party for years to come.

But all that was in the future. What was clear on that November morning in 1990 was that an era was passing. Nothing like it has been seen since.

The Wit and Wisdom of... Bill Clinton, Mk V

The real differences in our world are not between Catholics and Protestants, Arabs and Jews, Muslims, Croats, and Serbs; they are between those who embrace peace and those who reject it, those who look to the future and those who are blinded by the hatreds of the past, those who open their arms and those who are determined to keep clenching their fists.

We all have to choose. The people of Northern Ireland have chosen peace. They do not deserve to have a small group choose bloodshed and violence and wreck the peaceful life they long for. And the people of Great Britain do not deserve to have this violence wreaked upon them. 

We will not stop in our efforts until peace has been secured.

Bill Clinton, responding to the collapse of the IRA ceasefire and the bombing of Canary Wharf in London, 10th February 1996.

Europe Without Frontiers

The calls have started already. "Reinstate border controls!" cry many. "Schengen isn't working!" say the doom mongers. The carnage on the streets of Paris this weekend has led many to call for the end of one of the pinnacles of the European Union. Under the Schengen Agreement, countries in the Schengen Area removed border restrictions and controls. Citizens can travel freely between Berlin and Bordeaux, get the train from Paris to Poland, drive from Naples to Norway, without being required to show their passport or undergo checks at the border. Unfortunately, this system also enabled men to drive from Belgium and Germany to Paris last Friday, with horrific consequences.

Before writing off Schengen, though, it is worth pausing for thought. It was introduced in an early format in 1985, and finalised in the 1990s. This meant it was implemented after the Baader Meinhof Gang kidnapped West German industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer in 1977. He was kidnapped and initially held in West Germany, before being moved to Brussels and finally murdered in France, where his body was dumped. This in turn came three years after the same organisation had taken hostages at the West German embassy in Sweden, having planned and armed for the attack in West Germany.

Schengen was also introduced after the Provisional IRA had received huge quantities of weapons from Libya, and driven them to targets in Germany and Spain. After ETA had carried out its campaign for a Basque homeland in both France and Spain. After Black September murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. After the Secret Army Organisation, dedicated to overthrowing the French government, had operated out of bases in Spain. Or the Italian Red Brigades sought refuge in France.

My point is, a Europe with border controls did not stop terrorist attacks. It also did not stop the seeming ease with which these people travel across the Continent to carry out their murderous actions.

So let's not tear up the Schengen Agreement. There will, unfortunately always be idiots and lunatics prepared to commit harm. And sometimes, what we put in their way will not be enough. But that is no reason to reverse a quarter of a century of progress. As a school teacher, I know that punishing everyone for the actions of a few is bad practice, and breeds resentment.

Besides, the past we'd be returning to was not all it is being made out to be.

Pray for Vienna

The greatest thing that we can all do today is to send our prayers and messages of support... to Vienna.

There, foreign ministers and diplomats are locked in intensive talks, trying desperately to find a solution to the bloodbath in Syria. This vicious civil war is stoking the violence that we see on the TV every night, from Paris to the Persian Gulf. It is also driving millions of people from their homes, and forcing them to seek a better life elsewhere. Winter is coming, and thousands are still out there, struggling to safety.

Surely the best thing we can do for those who were murdered yesterday, in Paris, Beirut, Baghdad and across the world, would be to end the war that is driving the cycle of violence and human misery?

The Return of the Lady

As long as I have been alive, Aung San Suu Kyi has been a beacon for democracy and prisoners of conscience around the world. The daughter of Burma's founding father, she returned to her home country in 1988, as the military dictatorship which ruled it was struggling to hold on to power. In the 1990 elections, her National League for Democracy party took 57.8% of the vote, and 80% of the seats in parliament, crushing the military backed political parties. She seemed destined for power, to lead Burma into the light.

It never happened. The generals who ran the country were shocked, so they nullified the election results and launched a crackdown on the NLD. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. The following years were bleak. Her Nobel Prize for Peace, in 1991, was awarded to an empty chair, as the military refused to let her leave the country. In 1999, her British husband died of cancer, not having seen his wife in years. Periods of freedom were short-lived. She was often to be seen leaning over the gates of her Rangoon home, megaphone in hand, speaking to those brave enough to risk concentrating there.

But amongst ordinary Burmese, she became 'The Lady,' a symbol of the future that might have been. Around the world she was lauded as an icon, a symbol of the best of humanity. Burmese leaders could not travel to any Western democracy without being harangued about the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Eventually, the generals relented. In 2010 a rigged election started a slow, painful transition to democracy. The Lady was released. Over a decade late, she collected her Nobel Prize.

But the process was fraught with tension. The generals were still calling all the shots. The Burmese constitution was written to deliberately exclude her from power. A quarter of all MPs were to be appointed by the army.

No matter. Last Sunday, Burma had its first free elections since that May day in 1990. Once again, the NLD smashed the army backed politicians. The generals have admitted defeat. Aung San Suu Kyi is finally headed for the prize many believed she would never get.

The way ahead is not easy. Many are worried that, now she is a politician and no longer a symbol, the shine will come off of The Lady, as she faces the real world dilemmas of governing. But I know which she would prefer. Governing, any day. Nelson Mandela proved you could be both a symbolic liberator and a healing politician. Let's let The Lady try too.

Aung San Suu Kyi stands as a beacon for democracy, prisoners of conscience, and human rights. I really hope her time as Burma's leader is successful. God knows she deserves it.

The 1990 Burmese Election

The End of the Rope

Fifty years ago today the UK Parliament passed a Private Members Bill into law. It ensured that no criminal in the United Kingdom would ever hear the following words again:

The sentence of this court is that you will be taken from here to the place from whence you came and there be kept in close confinement until [date of execution], and upon that day that you be taken to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until you are dead. 

And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.

In abolishing capital punishment, Parliament was miles ahead of public opinion. It took until March of this year for support for the return of hanging to drop below 50%. After many horrific murders, or terrorist attacks, or police officers dying on duty, there are often calls for the death penalty to be reinstated.

And yet it hasn't. So, thank you, Sydney Silverman, the MP who introduced the Bill. And thank you to every parliamentarian who helped to make Britain a more civilised place that day.

The Wit and Wisdom of... Yitzhak Rabin

I, serial number 30743, Lieutenant General in reserves Yitzhak Rabin, a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces and in the army of peace; I, who have sent armies into fire and soldiers to their death, say today: We sail onto a war which has no casualties, no wounded, no blood nor suffering. It is the only war which is a pleasure to participate in — the war for peace.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, speaking before the US Congress, July 1994. On 4th November 1994, he was assassinated by an Israeli ultra-nationalist, for signing the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organisation. This is widely considered to have finished off the last best hope for a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

One of the Most Important People You've Probably Never Heard Of

We teach children that in history things have long term causes and short term causes. It can't be true that the First World War broke out because an Archduke was assassinated; no one is that popular.

The spectacular collapse of the Eastern Bloc between 1989 and 1991 has many long term causes. The structural economic problems of command economies, political repression, the inability of the Soviet Union to keep pace with NATO's defence spending, the courage of a handful prepared to stand and fight, peacefully, for a better life. All helped to fatally undermine the Eastern Bloc.

And short term? On 9th November 1989, the East German government announced a package of measures, designed to relax border controls with West Germany. These were designed to be phased in over a series of months. But no one had thought to tell Guenter Schabowski, the government spokesman sent out to face the media. When asked when these measures were to be introduced, he replied:

"This occurs, to my knowledge... immediately... without delay."

The rest, as they say, was history:

Guenter Schabowski died over the weekend. His cock up on that November night stands as a reminder that, for all the deep underlying currents which drive history, sometimes individuals act as the trigger for massive change.