WHAT WILL our “new normal” look like? To inform our debate, our “thoughts” this month will feature quotes from iconoclasts who want to see freedom, equality and justice for the many.
Here is an extract from a BBC Question Time programme in which Tony Benn told US Republican and National Security Adviser John Bolton what he thought of war.
“I was here in London during the Blitz. And every night I went down into the shelter. 500 people killed, my brother was killed, my friends were killed. And when the Charter of the UN was read to me, I was a pilot coming home in a troop ship: ‘We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.’ That was the pledge my generation gave to the younger generation and you tore it up. And it’s a war crime that’s been committed in Iraq, because there is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.”
•Read more about it: Thought for today The Thames Today