Tony Benn

From Free at Last!:

Tuesday 17 August [1999]
A tragic earthquake in Turkey. Originally they thought 500 people had died but by the end of the day they were talking about 5000 or 10,000 people killed. The British Government has put aside £0.5 milliion in relief.
When you think that £8 billion was spent on killin 2000 Serbs and half a million pounds is going on trying to rescue up to 10,000, it just confirms how disgraceful war is.

Tuesday 24 August [1999]
I wrote a letter to The Times linking together the bombing of Iraq, the inadequate help given for the Turkish earthquake and the continued support for the KLA in the Balkans. I wrote that I couldn't recall a government pursuing such an unethical and immoral foreign and defence policy.

Monday 27 September [1999], Labour Party Conference, Bournemouth
The Conference is totally different now; they really have obliterated any function of deision-making and the media just hover around trying to find a bit of trouble. But the press may get bored with Jesus Christ taking responsibility for all our sins.

Tuesday 28th September [1999]
I was invited to the Channel 4 breakfast - God knows why I was asked. ... Vanni Treves [Chairman of Channel 4] welcomed us, as if somehow Channel 4 was running the Conference at Bournemouth and we were his invited guests. ... When Vannni Treves said, 'We are very glad out masters; - referring to the Government - 'have conceded some reduction in taxation,' I thought, 'our masters' indeed. It's the other way around.

Wednesday 29th September [1999]
There were 250 people at the Campaign Group rally at the Wessex Hotel ... I said that after the class war has been abolished by Tony Blair, he's going to announce that Darwin was wrong, that the world was made in seven days - and you know by whom; that Galileo was wrong, the Earth does rotate around the Millbank Tower.

Sunday 4 February [2001]
There is an anti-globalisation conference in London this weekend, organised in effect by the Socialist Workers' Party. The more I think of the SWP, the more I realise how important that element is in any successful political movement.