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 […]

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 […]

Willy Brandt: the “Good German”

Lobster Issue 22 (1991)

[…] Brandt was an emigre and therefore suspect in many eyes. This was used in 1961 when, in one of the dirtiest political campaigns in post-war Germany, the conservative CDU/CSU parties called Brandt “a traitor to the fatherland”. Nazi propaganda that emigres were untrustworthy had a lasting effect. This unease even extended into the West’s […]

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 […]

Listen, Marxist

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1)

[…] another vicious attack on a Catholic. Campbell and Longstaff were both defended at their trials by Donald Findlay QC, Scottish Barrister, Dean of St Andrews University, leading Conservative, and who himself was caught on video giving a fine rendition of the Protestant anthem ‘The Sash’ at a post-match piss-up at Glasgow Rangers’ ground, Ibrox. […]

Watergate revisited: Hougan’s ‘Secret Agenda’

Lobster Issue 9 (1985)

Watergate revisited: Hougan’s Secret Agenda Introduction No apologies for returning to Jim Hougan’s Secret Agenda. As Steve Dorril said in Lobster 8, this is a major event. This essay is in two parts. In the first I make some critical remarks about Secret Agenda’s central theses; In the second I speculate about other items on […]

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 […]

The Pinay Circle

Lobster Issue 8 (1985)

[…] English and this may explain what appear to be errors. The Pinay Circle is an informal group which meets twice a year in different locations. It includes conservative and anti-communist politicians, journalists, bankers etc., and occasional guests, all of whom originally gravitated around former French President Pinay. A meeting took place at the Madison […]

Halliburton: Winning the Brown and Root Way

Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004)

[…] $1.2 million, as opposed to the $534,750 in the previous five years. In the UK In 1995, Brown and Root’s donations of £16,000 a year to the Conservative Party (presumably making them an honoured member of the Party’s ‘Team One Thousand’ initiative for donors of a £1,000 or more) was not the particular cause […]

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