Over the coming months we will be building an archive of Aneurin Bevan’s greatest oratory, including rare audio recordings.
Below you can find a sample speech and a sample audio recording. Please keep checking back for new material in the near future.
Weapons for squalid and trivial ends – House of Commons, December 5 1956
The speech to which we have just listened is the last of a long succession that the right honourable gentleman, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, has made to the House in the last few months and, if I may be allowed to say so, I congratulate him upon having survived so far.
Resignation speech – 23 April 1951
Mr. Speaker, it is one of the immemorial courtesies of the House of Commons that when a Minister has felt it necessary to resign his office, he is provided with an opportunity of stating his reasons to the House.
Suez Crisis anti-war rally, Trafalgar Square, 4 November 1956
Many more speeches and memorandum by Bevan on the foundation of the NHS can be found on the website of the Socialist Health Association: