The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] took office in 1974. That narrative says that Labour politicians don’t understand the economy and can’t be trusted with it. This narrative had such power over Gordon Brown and Tony Blair that they spent the period in opposition from 199497 endlessly endorsing it and promising not to challenge its perceived prescriptions. When he was […]

The economic crisis

Lobster Issue 58 (Winter 2009/2010) FREE

[PDF file]: […] the world does not include political approval or disapproval. NuLab didn’t understand this. Their initial posture towards the City was fear mixed with buttkissing. As chancellor, Gordon Brown may have famously not worn the expected dinner suit for his address at the annual meeting of the City bigwigs, but as his central policy that […]

Off Message, and, Standing for Something

Lobster Issue 63 (Summer 2012) FREE

[PDF file]: […] origin of New Labour is to be found in the historic defeats that the Thatcher government inflicted on the labour movement in the 1980s. Without these defeats, Brown would have remained on the left and Blair would never have become party leader. Marshall-Andrews’ own particular concerns are with New Labour’s colonial wars and its […]

THEY KNEW: how a culture of conspiracy keep America complacent by Sarah Kendzior

Lobster Issue 88 (2024) FREE
To access this content, you must subscribe to Lobster (click for details).

[PDF file]: Conspiracy theories and conspiracy facts THEY KNEW How a Culture of Conspiracy keeps America Complacent Sarah Kendzior New York: Flatiron Books 2022 John Newsinger Sarah Kendzior is one of the most interesting commentators writing about contemporary America. Her two previous books, The View from Flyover Country (2018) and Hiding in Plain Sight (2020), are essential […]

Our Fight for Democracy: A History of Democracy in the United Kingdom by John Strafford

Lobster Issue 59 (Summer 2010) FREE
To access this content, you must subscribe to Lobster (click for details).

[PDF file]: […] was followed by becoming a Privy Councillor in 2006 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the new Ministry of Justice in May 2007. In June 2007 Gordon Brown appointed her to the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. In October 2008 she replaced Peter Mandelson as […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] depressing? That he really believed ‘the rising tide lifts all boats’ story before, or that he didn’t but was unwilling to say so until now? When Gordon Brown dips into the bullshit basket he calls for some global action which he knows will never take place but which he thinks sounds impressive. His latest […]

Who pays the piper? Funding the Labour Party

Lobster Issue 85 (Summer 2023) FREE
To access this content, you must subscribe to Lobster (click for details).

[PDF file]: Who pays the piper? Funding the Labour Party Colin Challen When Jeremy Corbyn vacated the leadership of the Labour Party – even after a bruising general election in 2019 – the party was left with around £13 million in the kitty. In the years that followed that balance was gradually whittled away, until the party […]

A fly’s eye view of the American war against Vietnam 40 years later: who won which war?

Lobster Issue 70 (Winter 2015) FREE

[PDF file]: […] to Vietnam. He explained: ‘Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?…’ 7 An autorotation is a standard emergency procedure […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 89 (2024) FREE
To access this content, you must subscribe to Lobster (click for details).

[PDF file]: […] $2.07 at its peak in 2007). A strong pound is bad for the British manufacturing economy, making exports expensive and competing imports cheap. But Blair (and Chancellor Brown) didn’t care about manufacturing – or simply didn’t understand the impact the value of sterling had on it – or both. After all, we had the […]

View from Bridge 89

Lobster Issue

[…] $2.07 at its peak in 2007). A strong pound is bad for the British manufacturing economy, making exports expensive and competing imports cheap. But Blair (and Chancellor Brown) didn’t care about manufacturing – or simply didn’t understand the impact the value of sterling had on it – or both. After all, we had the […]

Accessibility Toolbar