POLITICS
“It’s possible to have disagreements
with people and they are still quite
able to listen to you and treat you
with respect”
Tony Benn
Afghanistan is holding presidential elections – that’s a good thing to have
come out of the war isn’t it?
When there were elections in Iran, the British press took the view
that the demonstrators were right and Ahmadinejad was wrong. What
they’ll do this time I don’t know, but we don’t live in a world where
Britain can occupy other countries because they don’t like their policies.
That’s an illusion. There was a time when I was born when 400 million
people lived in the British Empire and we ran the place – that’s over
now.
You’ve interviewed Saddam Hussein several times. What were your
impressions of him?
Well, he was a brutal dictator. I went there last time just before the Iraq
War to ask him questions. I asked him, do you have weapons of mass
destruction? And he said no. I didn’t know whether to believe him or
not but actually he was telling me the truth – he didn’t. I asked, do you
have links with Al Qaeda? And he said no. Well I knew that was true
because Bin Laden hated Saddam because Saddam was a secularist. There
were churches and synagogues in Iraq under Saddam. When I came
home I was denounced for not being tougher on him – but in a sense
what he said was correct. So that’s why I went and I’m glad I did. But
then the war was nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction
anyway – Bush wanted the oil.
What are your thoughts on the expenses scandal?
What came out was an absolute abuse of the system and I’m very glad it
did come out. And it does prove that when you have freedom of
information and you can discover what’s happening, it stops it. I mean
none of these MPs would have put in their claims if they’d have known
that it would have become public. So in a sense the publicity and
reports have stopped it but you have to be much clearer about it and lay
down the rules. An MP should not decide their own salaries or their
own expenses and it should be properly monitored. It has shaken
people’s confidence in parliament and that’s not good for anybody. But I
don’t think most MPs are responsible for this – most of the MPs I know,
from all parties, do a conscientious job.
66
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84