'The pledge of that generation to this generation'

It's 80 years today since the UN Charter was ratified on 24th October 1945. It's words were movingly invoked in this speech by Tony Benn MP, responding to debate on bombing of Iraq in 1998.

Tony Benn was a Labour MP who served as a Minister in the Harold Wilson cabinets of the 60s and 70s. He belonged to the left wing of the party, and had a stint as opposition leader in 1988. He actually succeeded a man we’ve had on the Speakola podcast — Neil Kinnock. After his retirement from politics, he was a passionate anti war activist, and served as the president of the Stop the War coalition until he died in 2014.

This is a brilliant speech, and one hears its echoes whenever bombs are falling, whether it be in Yemen, Ukraine or Palestine. The conflict being debated was the bombing of Iraq in 1998 — which would go ahead and would become known as Operation Desert Fox —a President Clinton ordered attack that took place from 16th-19th December 1998. The issue was whether or not the Saddam Hussein regime was producing and storing weapons of mass destruction, a question that would dominate international politics across the first decade of the 21st century.

Things to listen for that might help your own speaking -

• There is a beautiful ad libbing. Benn doesn’t look down at his notes as he’s talking about his own reflections on the Blitz. He’s an experienced speaker and he knows this stuff well … so his head his high, and it allows him to be pacy and humorous - more pacy and humourous than he’d be with head in notes;

• There’s incredible percussion in the way he hits the most important paragraph in the speech, (again he’s not reading) the bit beginning ‘Aren’t Arabs terrified?’ You can even see Benn beating out the urgency of his rhythm with his hand.

• ‘Aren’t Arabs terrified’ begins a slew of rhetorical questions - a good device in any argumentative debate. They’re quick, punchy, and emotive.

• Quote from the stuff that moves you. Benn dips into the UN Charter, and he is visibly choking up at the sacrifice a previous generation made, and the lengths they went to to avoid future wars. Because he’s moved, we’re moved.

The transcript of the Benn speech is below .

Happy anniversary UN Charter. You’ve had good days and bad days across these 80 years. Hopefully there’s still a place for liberalism, multilateralism, global cooperation and debate in a world that lurches in totalitarian directions.

We need more Tony Benns! We need longer memories.

Best wishes

Tony

Tony Benn: ‘Don’t Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die?’, vote on Iraq bombing - 1998

17 February 1998, Westminster, United Kingdom

I finish just by saying this: war is an easy thing to talk about; there are not many people left of the generation that remember it. The Right Honourable Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup served with distinction in the last war. I never killed anyone but I wore uniform.

But I was in London in The Blitz in 1940, living in the Millbank tower, where I was born. Some different ideas have come in since. [laughter] And every night, I went down to the shelter in Thames House. Every morning, I saw Dockland burning. Five hundred people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying. Aren’t Arabs terrified? Aren’t Iraqis terrified? Don’t Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Doesn’t bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.