The Rebel Who Lost His Cause: the tragedy of John Beckett MP

Book cover
Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] constructive statesman, admittedly flawed, but certainly not a criminal; in fact, as a great wasted talent. This man, we are routinely assured, could have led either the Conservative or the Labour party; but then so could Tony Blair, so this hardly amounts to a great endorsement, even assuming its validity. But what does this […]

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An Unbiased Watch? the police and fascist/anti-fascist street conflict in Britain, 1945-1951

Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998) £££

The history of the police, fascism and anti-fascism in Britain, is dominated by three very different interpretations. First, there is the argument that the police acted as a constraint against fascism: intervening against fascist groups as the need arose. Second, there is the opposite view: that the police were a hindrance to anti-fascists, acting always … Read more

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Plotting for Peace and War

Lobster Issue 22 (1991) £££

[…] its Empire intact while simultaneously allowing Hitler to proceed on his crusade against the real enemy, the USSR. This defeatism was encouraged by powerful sections of the Conservative Party, the City, industry and the Royal Family, all of whom were disposed on ideological and/or racist grounds to take a favourable view of Nazism. So […]

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The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££

A spook, moi? One of the formative experiences of my youth – and we’re talking early 1960s here, beatnik days, when wearing a narrow leather tie was pretty hip – was going to the Mound in Edinburgh on Sunday nights. The Mound is like Hyde Park Corner in London, a place where local by-laws allow … Read more

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The secret of the 1917 ‘Balfour declaration’

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007) £££

[…] gave the main reasons (not including the original strategic ones): in the ensuing debate, Milner, Lloyd George, Smuts, and Barnes were all in favour. Bonar Law (bourgeois Conservative) was neutral and Curzon (aristocratic Conservative) was the only one to oppose it. The decision to publish was on October 31. After this debate, Balfour communicated […]

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Listen, Marxist

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] another vicious attack on a Catholic. Campbell and Longstaff were both defended at their trials by Donald Findlay QC, Scottish Barrister, Dean of St Andrews University, leading Conservative, and who himself was caught on video giving a fine rendition of the Protestant anthem ‘The Sash’ at a post-match piss-up at Glasgow Rangers’ ground, Ibrox. […]

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The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3) £££

[…] The Security Service mind is a wonderful thing. To it a potential risk is the same as an actual risk. Thus we discover that Lord Bethell, a Conservative Whip in the Heath government, was fired because he was….. not a risk per se but a risk of becoming a risk, as it were. Lord […]

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MI5: New Threats for Old? Turning up the Heat: MI5 after the Cold War

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££

[…] given the absence of a real subversive threat in CND which would provide a legitimate excuse for penetration and surveillance, and unwilling to tell this to its Conservative political masters, MI5 did simply fabricate a communist/subversive role CND didn’t deserve. However, assuming that MI5 will simply fabricate a ‘new threat’ to keep themselves in […]

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Alastair Campbell (Book review)

Book cover
Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004) £££

[…] up a large fund to enable ordinary citizens to sue newspapers; or introduced a Right of Reply Act. Etc etc. In the event they did nothing. The conservative nature of the British media became the cover story for their own conservative beliefs. A member of the Labour Party for tribal rather than political reasons, […]

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Willy Brandt: the “Good German”

Lobster Issue 22 (1991) £££

[…] Brandt was an emigre and therefore suspect in many eyes. This was used in 1961 when, in one of the dirtiest political campaigns in post-war Germany, the conservative CDU/CSU parties called Brandt “a traitor to the fatherland”. Nazi propaganda that emigres were untrustworthy had a lasting effect. This unease even extended into the West’s […]

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