I don't want to commit myself in advocating a definite republican constitution which will get bogged down with the question of who would elect the President and when.

If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: 'Benn grabs child

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 think if journalists were responsible for international policy we'd have a nuclear war every week.

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?

There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

When somebody comes up with a progressive idea, to begin with, you're mad, bonkers. Then if you go on, you're dangerous. Then there's a pause. Then you can't find anyone who can say they thought of it in the first place. That's how progress is made. This is why I do believe in the vote. In the end, all these people who've been tempted to the right realise the warning lights in their constituency are brighter than the bright lights from No. 10 offering them things.