A political journey

Lobster Issue 41 (Summer 2001) £££

[…] three-year window of opportunity, to out-flank New Labour with a national welfare model and fully caught in the time warp of the period 1983 to 1992. The Conservative Party has not recognised that sufficient of the electorate did not reject it because of scandal but because the Thatcherite model of society was unbalanced – […]

A Very British Jihad

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Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004) £££

[…] the mid-1980s to train, arm and direct loyalist para-militaries against the IRA. The one piece missing from his analysis is evidence of the political dimension. Did the Conservative government approve of this? Did they know of this? Larkin presumes so but cannot demonstrate it. Larkin lacks a senior British Army, intelligence officer or civil […]

Our Friends in the North-East

Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004) £££

[…] governments. Quite what they will do now that this is clearly not the case will be interesting. (Presumably their calculation will be that Labour = 55% ok, Conservative = 35% ok….Therefore continue to back Labour ). The curious accidents of geography and history still resonate. The departure of John Edmonds in 2003 meant a […]

Contemporary British History 1931-61: politics and the limits of policy

Lobster Issue 22 (1991) £££

[…] World War and post-war official controls’ huffs and puffs merely to show that while the City was sat on between 1939 and 1951, as soon as the Conservative Party got into office, it got its hands back on economic policy. Notice how Roberts puts this: “Two decades of cheap money came to an end […]

The Rebel Who Lost His Cause: the tragedy of John Beckett MP

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Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] constructive statesman, admittedly flawed, but certainly not a criminal; in fact, as a great wasted talent. This man, we are routinely assured, could have led either the Conservative or the Labour party; but then so could Tony Blair, so this hardly amounts to a great endorsement, even assuming its validity. But what does this […]

Northern Ireland Act 1974

Lobster Issue 14 (1987) £££

[…] treason by MI5 officers in Britain and abroad. I do not believe for a minute that these things could have been going on without members of the Conservative party being kept informed in the generality if not in specific details. It looks increasingly likely that Mr. Airey Neave was in touch with some of […]

An Unbiased Watch? the police and fascist/anti-fascist street conflict in Britain, 1945-1951

Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998) £££

The history of the police, fascism and anti-fascism in Britain, is dominated by three very different interpretations. First, there is the argument that the police acted as a constraint against fascism: intervening against fascist groups as the need arose. Second, there is the opposite view: that the police were a hindrance to anti-fascists, acting always … Read more

Plotting for Peace and War

Lobster Issue 22 (1991) £££

[…] its Empire intact while simultaneously allowing Hitler to proceed on his crusade against the real enemy, the USSR. This defeatism was encouraged by powerful sections of the Conservative Party, the City, industry and the Royal Family, all of whom were disposed on ideological and/or racist grounds to take a favourable view of Nazism. So […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££

A spook, moi? One of the formative experiences of my youth – and we’re talking early 1960s here, beatnik days, when wearing a narrow leather tie was pretty hip – was going to the Mound in Edinburgh on Sunday nights. The Mound is like Hyde Park Corner in London, a place where local by-laws allow … Read more

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008) £££

[…] to the Committee on Standards in Public Life about the influence of the Israeli lobby in the UK, is on-line.(5) Most usefully, it includes details of the Conservative as well as Labour Friends of Israel. The authors comment: ‘In the meantime your Committee is aware how the lobby group, Friends of Israel, has embedded […]

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