Oliver Kamm London: The Social Affairs Unit, 2005, h/b, £13.99 Kamms’ Anti-totalitarianism was published in the same week and possibly on the same day as the Henry Jackson Society announced itself to the world. So this is a kind of manifesto for that group. (1 ) It’s a nice try, in a way, this […]
Many thanks, as always, to Terry Hanstock for contributions. Comments and contributions welcome. My email is ‘War on Terrorism’: Repercussions of 11 Sept. 2001 The Sept 11 2001 attacks on the US and subsequent ‘war against terrorism’ have provided law enforcement/intelligence agencies with an opportunity to push for sweeping new powers, plus fast-tracking of … Read more
The Cecil King coup plot as precursor to Gordon Brown’s ‘government of all the talents’ Students of parapolitics are divided as to the seriousness of the Cecil King coup plot of 1968 to establish what he called a ‘businessman’s government’, a permanent coalition government dominated by the right of the Labour Party but with unelected … Read more
[…] lay out their policy documents, the task of this ‘Peter Wright’ may have been accomplished and the expulsion was simply the authorities maintaining his cover as a liberal sympathiser. It does not seem likely that this is a hitherto suppressed part of Wright’s career working for HMG, but damn, the photographs look close. I, […]
Policing (a) and the miners 3 page overview in Labour Research (September) Officers being sent straight from training school (Guardian 20 November) Police installing alarms in homes of (some) working miners. (Guardian 27 November) Police officers being charged a ‘fee’ of a bottle of whisky to get on lucrative picket duty. (Daily Telegraph 25 October) … Read more
Hitler’s spy chief: the Wilhelm Canaris mystery Richard Bassett London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2005, £20 This is a full and very well researched biography of one of the great enigmatic figures of the spy world in the 30s and 40s. The author, former foreign correspondent of The Times in Berlin and Prague, provides … Read more
[…] the Spanish Civil War but she could not recall on whose side. He was a very powerful public speaker and orator and had once stood as a Liberal candidate in a general election. The name Clay Shaw meant nothing to her. Hughes was very active in the English Speaking Union and frequently went on […]
[…] Hegel’s most effective pupil, might have built a theory of colonisation on this if he hadn’t shared many of the racial/racist assumptions of his contemporaries, including his liberal opponent, Mill. Mac Laughlin examines the growth of the notion of the ‘native’ in Ireland, with the concomitant fear of miscegenation. This is the root of […]
[…] and gave it a big thumbs up in the Guardian at The greatest sedition is silence William Rivers Pit London: Pluto Press, 2003, h/b, £18.99 A left- liberal polemic against the Bush regime, this hits the right targets: corporate dominance of politics, stealing the election, 9/11, the hyping of terrorism, the Patriot Act, neo-cons, […]
[…] the role that McCarry had while he was in the CIA.) McCarry presents a fairly positive picture of CIA people and activities (he was obviously on the liberal wing of the agency) and to judge by the acknowledgement by Alexander Haig to McCarry in the front of Haig’s memoire Caveat (1983) for assistance with […]
