The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue

The view from the bridge Robin Ramsay Thanks to Nick Must (in particular) and Garrick Alder for editorial and proofreading assistance. *new* SNAFU or FUBAR? I glance at the financial pages of some of the newspapers, mainly to see the latest idiocy that has been allowed to happen. Most recently that has been the collapse […]

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]: […] helicopter lifted off of the roof of the Saigon embassy compound before the ‘loser’ extended full diplomatic recognition to the country that had defeated it. President William Clinton was quoted as saying that the time was at hand ‘to bind up our wounds’.6 2 Never mind that President Clinton avoided the draft and any […]

The nature of the state and future challenges

Lobster Issue 81 (Summer 2021) FREE

[PDF file]: The nature of the state and future challenges Bigger Government: The Future of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies Marc Robinson Arolla Press, 2020 https://biggergovernment.com The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy David Graeber London: Melville House, 2015 The Entrepreneurial State – Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths Mariana Mazzucato, […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue

The View from the Bridge Robin Ramsay Even Wikipedia….. In August much of the major media, including the BBC, ran a story about the late Cedric Belfrage, claiming he was a Soviet spy, ‘the sixth man’. Christopher Andrew was among those prominently quoted supporting this thesis. The estimable John Simkins published a devastating rebuttal of […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 62 (Winter 2011) FREE

[PDF file]: […] late 2007-early 2008: for example, one could simply read the July 9 2007 issue of Fortune magazine to discover who the major backers of John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama were. One could also have read Business Week (25 February 2008) or the Los Angeles Times of 21 March 2008. Through February 2008 […]

Trump, the US Military and the American Empire

Lobster Issue 80 (Winter 2020) FREE

[PDF file]: Trump, the US Military and the American Empire Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos Peter Bergen New York: Penguin Press, 2019 Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis Guy M. Snodgrass New York: Sentinel (Penguin Random House), 2019 The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies Michael […]

Misc reviews

Lobster Issue

Robin Ramsay These reviews of mine were written for other publications, notably the Fortean Times. Who killed Dag Hammarskjold? The UN, the Cold War and white supremacy in Africa Susan Williams London: Hurst and Company, 2011; 300 pages, h/b, £20.00 After travelling thousands of miles, visiting many libraries and archives, interviewing the surviving eyewitnesses and […]

9/11 attracts mainstream critics

Lobster Issue 91 (2025) FREE

[PDF file]: 9/11 attracts new mainstream critics John Booth In the face of the dark horrors fed to us daily from the Middle East and Ukraine, one risks being deemed Pollyanna-ish to detect any comforting points of light. Who can draw much consolation when a UK Labour Government proscribes a direct-action pro-Palestine group as terrorists in the […]

On Disinformation: How to fight for truth and protect democracy by Lee McIntyre

Lobster Issue 87 (2023) FREE

[PDF file]: ‘Epistemic homicide’ On Disinformation How to fight for truth and protect democracy Lee McIntyre Cambridge (Mass.) and London: MIT Press, 2023, (p/b) $14.95/£10.99 Robin Ramsay This is a short book of about 24,000 words on a very important and complex subject from an American perspective. So much of it is quotable, what follows is mostly […]

A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s by Alwyn W. Turner

Lobster Issue 66 (Winter 2013) FREE

[PDF file]: […] although important, role. In the end, Blair lacked the nerve to call a vote. Mr Turner is acute in his observations of the Labour leader: ‘Unlike Bill Clinton, he was not a charismatic figure, but had learnt the trick of behaving as if he were.’ As for comparisons between Blair and Thatcher, there was […]

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