Tony Benn

In the Iraq debate on 17 February 1998, Benn begins by numbering points of agreement before identifying where disagreement starts. He then moves through authority to use force, parliamentary responsibility and the human consequences of war, drawing on his own experience of earlier conflicts. The style is deliberately explanatory, with an accessible sequence supporting a strongly moral conclusion. Read him beside Hilary Benn: both appeal to political responsibility, but build contrasting cases about when force should be used.