Newton on Keynes

Lobster Issue

[…] wrote in 1926) that ‘many big undertakings’ (notably public utilities) ‘need to be semisocialised’,4 in the form of semi-autonomous public corporations. But in organizations such as the BBC, the Bank of England, the Port of London Authority, ‘the big utility enterprise’ and ‘big insurance’ firms, and even the railway companies, Keynes identified a tendency […]

Hope & Despair: Lifting the lid on the murky world of Scottish politics by Neil Findlay and But What Can I Do?: Why politics has gone so wrong, and how you can help fix it by Alastair Campbell

Lobster Issue 86 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] included this hoping no one recalled his role in the promotion of the Iraq War, the mysterious death of Dr Kelly or his venomous attack on the BBC that led to the resignation of its chair, Gavyn Davies, and its director general Greg Dyke. Dyke initially helped fund Blair. He later regretted it ‘because […]

The Brexit impasse

Lobster Issue 74 (Winter 2017)

[PDF file]: […] this out last year, it Scott Newton, ‘The Conservatives and Europe: the long view’, History and Policy Opinion Paper, January 2013, or . 14 Matt Drake, ‘ BBC Newsnight: Lord Heseltine “in favour” of voting for “horrific” Corbyn to STOP (sic) Brexit’, Daily Express, 10 November 2017. 15 still involves a very significant U-turn. […]

View from Bridge copy

Lobster Issue

[…] the country as it actually is and as it is represented in Westminster.3 If Butler and McTeague are political commentators, Libby Purves is not. Occasional Times columnist, BBC presenter for many years, Purves is the personification of the middle-of-the-road, mainstream, apolitical (but conservative) journalist.4 But things are now so bad even Purves was moved […]

South of the Border

Lobster Issue 86 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] fact that there has been more than a little victim-shaming – sometimes subtle, other times not so. Take, for example, a piece by Gordon Corera for the BBC in 2021, detailing information on U.S. diplomats who were suing their government employer.1 Corera states that ‘members of the public, some with mental health issues, approach […]

lob86South of the Border

Lobster Issue

[…] fact that there has been more than a little victim-shaming – sometimes subtle, other times not so. Take, for example, a piece by Gordon Corera for the BBC in 2021, detailing information on U.S. diplomats who were suing their government employer.1 Corera states that ‘members of the public, some with mental health issues, approach […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 92 (2026)

[PDF file]: […] almost entirely ignored by the major media outside Ireland.4 *new* One inch to the east Steve Rosenberg’s ‘Our Man in Moscow’, about his life there as the BBC correspondent, included one interesting snippet in Putin’s response to a question from him. Asked if there would be any further ‘special military operations’, Putin replied not […]

Historical Notes on British complicity in the Gaza genocide

Lobster Issue 92 (2026)

[PDF file]: […] the Gaza Strip, UM Commission finds’, 16 September 2025, . See also Jeremy Bowen, ‘UN commission report on genocide is blunt indictment of Israel’s actions in Gaza’, BBC News 16 September 2025, . 7 ‘IPSOS poll on British attitudes towards the conflict in Israel and Gaza’, 15 September 2025, 8 9 See for example […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] bullshit basket he calls for some global action which he knows will never take place but which he thinks sounds impressive. His latest was reported on the BBC News website: he wants a ‘global fund for education’.6 No doubt this will be next on the list after the new global financial system he wants […]

Accessibility Toolbar