The quote above remains an excellent statement about how Government’s treat refugees. In the era of Sunak and Braverman its particularly relevant.
‘Justin Horton’ raised the question however of whether Tony Benn actually said it.
Similar words were written by the Scottish journalist Neal Ascherson in 1996 and paraphrased by Francis Wheen in the Guardian in 1999.
There is no date attribution to the Benn quote but the use of the word ‘instructive’ not in Ascherson or Wheen, but a Bennism,suggests he may well have made the statement, albeit perhaps taken from either or both of the previous authors.
Although a lot of Benn’s writings are in the public domain quite a lot also are not. Further thoughts welcome beyond again the obvious one that its an excellent quote.
Exactly