Tony Benn - words and actions

'Tony Benn always asks five questions when he meets powerful men.

Those questions are “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?”'

Now I've haerd Tony Benn make this sort of claim in various interviews over the years so I was intrigued to be pointed at his 2003 interview with Saddam Hussein. Here are Tony Benn's questions:

'Mr President, may I ask you some questions. The first is, does Iraq have any weapons of mass destruction?

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I have another which has been raised: do you have links with Al Qaeda?

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In relation to the inspectors, there appears to be difficulties with inspectors, and I wonder whether there's anything you can tell me about these difficulties and whether you believe they will be cleared up before Mr Hans Blix and Mr Elbaradei come back to Baghdad?

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May I broaden the question out, Mr President, to the relations between Iraq and the UN, and the prospects for peace more broadly, and I wonder whether with all its weaknesses and all the difficulties, whether you see a way in which the UN can reach that objective for the benefit of humanity?

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There are people who believe this present conflict is about oil, and I wonder if you say something about how you see the enormous oil reserves of Iraq being developed, first for the benefit of the people of Iraq and secondly for the needs of mankind.

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There are tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people in Britain and America, in Europe and worldwide, who want to see a peaceful outcome to this problem , and they are the real Americans in my opinion, the real British, the real French, the real Germans, because they think of the world in terms of their children. I have ten grandchildren and in my family there is English, Scottish, American, French, Irish, Jewish and Indian blood, and for me politics is about their future, their survival. And I wonder whether you could say something yourself directly through this interview to the peace movement of the world that might help to advance the cause they have in mind? '

What no “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?”; why not?




Thanks to Harrty's Place and commenters for the spots.