[…] present orientation of a group which used to be devoted to the propagation of (first) the Empire and then the Commonwealth. “In the longer sweep of his tory we have to understand that the basic supposition of our national policy towards the European mainland has been transformed since 1945. For four centuries we secured […]
The idea that the Security Service, MI5, colluded with British fascism in the inter-war years is not to be found in the existing literature on the subject. On the contrary the fascists are depicted as the victims, rather than the beneficiaries of MI5’s attentions. MI5, it is generally argued, viewed fascism as a potential danger … Read more
[…] of informers. That has the potential to completely undermine the effectiveness of any investigation.’ Scott free Mark Phythian, Professor of International Security and Director of the His tory and Governance Research Institute, University of Wolverhampton, compares and contrasts the Scott and Hutton inquiries, the resulting reports () which ‘… the process whereby the British […]
How public relations became the cutting edge of corporate power David Miller and William Dinan London: Pluto, 2008; £45 h/b and £14.99 p/b This is big stuff, ambitious and wide-ranging with an enormous amount packed into 180 pages of text (with 50 pages of notes, tables and index). Many books are too long: this is … Read more
[…] (1) What a coincidence! The day before the government’s new Bill to increase its anti-terrorism powers came into force the Sunday Telegraph (18 February) carried a s tory headed, ‘Police foil terror plot to use sarin gas in London’. Said story contained not a single verifiable fact, suspect’s name, terror group’s name, nor reference […]
[…] car, the Customs had found documentation of a massive purchase of the LSD base, ergotamine tartrate, but failed to see its significance.(6) When Stark moved his labora tory from Paris to Orleans, he claimed he had been warned about an impending raid on the lab when, ‘by chance’, he ran into an old pal […]
[…] the miners’ strike of 1984-85, read alongside each other, offer real insights into this epochal confrontation. Seumas Milne’s updated account of this watershed moment in British his tory is investigative journalism at its very best. It is a stunning exposé of the strategy and tactics of right wing elements in the British state and […]
[…] There were some protests about the QinetiQ scandal. Mark Serwotka of the PCS union described the affair as ‘obscene’. It was condemned by various Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs, and even by the odd Labour MP. The government, however, defended it as a ‘good deal’ for the taxpayer. Indeed, Lord Drayson, then the Minister […]
[…] But one man, Michael Eddowes, took her very seriously indeed, claiming to have spent over $100,000 of his own money following up leads generated by her s tory. To Eddowes, Novotny was the link to a Soviet plot to discredit Western leaders: “I had discovered that the group in London who had destroyed Profumo […]
The funding of Blair Sometimes chronology implies causality and sometimes not. Consider the following sequence of events: in January 1994 Tony Blair, then Shadow Home Secretary and career-long member of the Labour Friends of Israel, took a four day freebie trip to Israel, with his wife, at the expense of the Israeli government. Two months … Read more
