Getting it right: the security agencies in modern society

Lobster Issue 41 (Summer 2001)

[…] in this field? Why do MPs sit on the ISC doing degrading, keep-em-busy, shit-work? Why do MPs take no notice of a £200 million overspend? From a Conservative government we would expect nothing else, of course. The security agencies simply are not on their agenda. The Tories are historically the Queen and country party, […]

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 […]

The Trouble With Harry: A memoire of Harry Newton, MI5 agent

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994)

[…] at various times a Communist Party member, Ban-the-Bomber and Rank and File shop steward.’ It omitted to say that he had also been a member of the Conservative Party at one stage in a rather varied career. The balloon goes up On February 20, 1985, Channel 4 banned a 20/20 Vision documentary programme and […]

Tittle-tattle

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] wants to replace Trident, begin to stray from Atlanticist orthodoxy. Thinking even further ahead we have BAP veteran ‘two brains’ David Willetts on hand for a future Conservative cabinet. Already a powerful influence on David Cameron is Steve Hilton,() an early BAP recruit and  a fellow trustee of the Citizenship Foundation with Maclay. Guardian […]

Liddle and Lobbygate: reflections on a Downing Street drama

Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9)

[…] the way the party was changing under Harold Wilson. The trio had been at the core of the 69 pro-Market Labour MPs who had voted with the Conservative Government in 1971.(7) Bradley quotes Liddle’s future business partner, Taverne, as saying of that time: ‘We feared not only that the party would turn against the […]

Philip Agee, the KGB and us

Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)

[…] the West: ‘In the Communist sphere outside of Europe, we [KGB) worked closest with the Cubans…….The Cubans’ ardour also spurred them to take chances that we, a conservative superpower (USSR), were reluctant to take. A perfect example occurred shortly after I became head of Foreign Counterintelligence in 1973. CIA officer Philip Agee approached our […]

The Holocaust Denial

Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

[…] 1986) which is more or less an expansion of this final chapter. My opinions on the current “line” in anti-racist strategies are of no relevance here, but when I read in Heidel’s essay that “the racism of the neo- conservative New Right is cultural” it seems to me that something has gone wrong. ‘Cultural racism’?

Obituaries

Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998)

[…] during the late 1970s. Once upon a time, the stories continued, the Communist Party invited him to join. But Ace turned them down ‘because they were too conservative.’ Ace was bright and articulate, in a gruff sort of way. He had no tolerance for the well-turned subtleties of talking heads and conventional wise men. […]

Another Pinay sighting

Lobster Issue 22 (1991)

“There was another institution which gave Billy particular pleasure. It was called Le Cercle, and outside the circle nothing was known about it but the name. Its origins and membership were (and still are) as deeply cocooned in mystery as those of the most exclusive Masonic lodge. It appears to have been founded by the … Read more

The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East

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Lobster Issue 51 (Summer 2006)

Robert Fisk London: Fourth Estate, 2005, £25.00   This very fine book runs to more than 1,300 pages, is well footnoted, referenced and indexed, carries a helpful bibliography and is written by one of the most fluent, knowledgeable and thoughtful journalists of our time. That part of its dedication is to Fisk’s parents ‘who taught … Read more

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