Words matter. These are the best Hilary Benn Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The Brexit referendum showed us to be divided, and those of us who campaigned for remain have to accept that we lost. But that does not mean that we have to agree to the deal the prime minister has brought back – a deal that satisfies no one.
I grew up in a household where we talked about the state of the world over breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I’m really keen to see a Labour government because there are many things to be done, not least pursuing a sensible Brexit and not one that damages our economy and jobs.
There is an opportunity – for the first time – for a global deal to control the movement of small arms, such as AK47s and anti-aircraft rocket launchers, as well as heavier weapons like battle tanks.
All countries will feel the increasing effects of dangerous climate change and it is those least able to bear it who are already being hurt first and hardest.
The 90s was a difficult decade, with recessions in many transition countries and in emerging economies provoked by financial crises; and with continuing stagnation in Africa.
We will need to work hard to break the cynicism, talk straight and rebuild trust in politics.
Trade deal negotiations are highly complicated and take a long time.
With rising pressures on councils, particularly on social care and looked-after children, we have to reshape the way public services work to break down the barriers and get services working together.
Politics is a process, and there has to be a continual conversation between those who govern and those who give their consent to be governed.
When it comes to jobs, investment, growth, security and our influence in the world we are clearly stronger in Europe. But we are also making a Labour argument about workers’ rights that really matter, to millions of working people and the trade unions that represent them.
We need to throw away less, recycle a lot more and turn much of the rest into energy.
In the 70s and 80s, Dad was ‘the most hated politician in Britain’. When I started at Holland Park school, the papers turned up and there was a photograph of me published – skinny me in white shorts lining up with lots of other kids for PE. And I was 10.
I spent 20 years working for the trade union movement before becoming a Labour MP. I’m proud to have done both jobs.
Each year, about 45 million people are affected by war. Three hundred thousand people die looking down the barrel of a gun – and 200,000 of these are killed in countries ostensibly at peace.
When it comes to whether Britain should remain in the European Union, almost all political parties and traditions – Labour, the Greens, Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and half of the Tory Party – agree that we are better off in Europe.
We must not ignore the younger electorate in a fight for older swing voters who we can be confident will go to the polls.
We came to see the benefits for working people of common employment rights, guaranteed throughout the EU to prevent a race to the bottom. We worked together in practical ways to make cleaner beaches, protect the environment and ensure consumer rights.
State-building can not be imposed. Its foundation must be a shared understanding between those who govern, and those who give their consent to be governed – the ‘deal’ between citizen and state.
We cannot comfort ourselves with the idea that young people will take a greater interest in our politics as they establish themselves in a job, in their communities or in their family life.
I was interested in public service, and looking back at my father, my grandfather and two great-grandfathers, well, yeah, that’s what they did, too. And I think public service, like journalism, done right is a really honourable, really important profession.
The poorest still deserve help with life’s basic necessities regardless of the quality of their government.
The union movement has achieved a huge amount in the past century or so. It has secured important rights at work, tackled unfair discrimination and ensured that Britain is one of the safest places in the world in which to go to work.
We face a simple choice. Either we go back to the days when everything was disposable and landfill dumps consumed our countryside at an increasing pace, or we recognise that we have limited resources and need to use them wisely and sustainably.
In short, corruption destroys the ‘deal’ – the bargain – between the citizen and the state; and it harms the poorest most.
People who feel alienated have little trust in the institutions of our society. This adds to the wider sense of disaffection and makes it more difficult for our politics to work.
I agree on the need for environmental sustainability. It is no good raising gross national income while at the same time destroying natural assets.
A politician can go out and speak for him or herself, but actually for the family it’s difficult – although it does bind you.
The problem is that the global arms trade is entirely free of international regulation. In a world in which the flow of consumer goods is governed by a plethora of international conventions and regulations, deadly weapons have an uncanny knack of slipping through the net.
When your father loses his job you’re not sure what the future is going to be. I was conscious that people were interested in what was happening to my father.
