Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)
[…] We’ve got another MP who takes a serious interest in the British secret state. In the past we have had MPs who had been secret servants (mostly Conservative) and a few Labour MPs who took a temporary interest. Almost twenty years ago Ken Livingstone took a sustained interest until the researcher who was generating […]
Lobster Issue 31 (June 1996)
[…] Briefing, edited by a former head of MI5’s F Branch, Charles Elwell. In 1995 it was revealed that in 1963 IRIS had received £40,000 from the ( Conservative) government via its ‘secret vote’, unaccountable funds, and a further £35,000 from a number of large companies, including Ford and Shell. See The Times, Guardian and […]
Lobster Issue 38 (Winter 1999)
[…] Public Prosecutor’s report into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Section D1023 – D4936 One of Al Fayed’s more unlikely supporters has been Charles Wardle, the Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle. On 22 June 1999. He opened an adjournment debate on the accountability of the Metropolitan Police over the arrest of Al […]
Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)
Crime fighting? There must many candidates for the title ‘The most damaging thing I have read about this government’. My current candidate is a piece by Simon Jenkins, ‘A Keep Police off the Streets Strategy Unit’ (The Times 2 February 2002). After reminding the reader that in the UK the police are a local service, … Read more
Lobster Issue 30 (December 1995)
[…] that they ‘could be flown into a trouble spot rapidly and discreetly, and operate in a remote area without publicity – a capability much valued by the Conservative Government of the day’ (pp. 150-151). There was considerable demand for their services throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. De la Billiere himself served in […]
Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)
[…] Observer had stood out against the British invasion of Suez in 1956, despite courting the scorn of the government and the loss of some of its more conservative readers and advertisers. And yet this newspaper which had thrived on scepticism was seduced into accepting unproven and extravagant claims; this flagship of the left was […]