[…] no Soviet grand plan for the invasion of Britain and world domination; and nothing in Mitrokhin’s packet of revelations proves that there was. Even if the ultra- conservative Soviet bureaucracy had wanted to conquer the world, the creaking and sclerotic Soviet system was hardly up to it. The Cold War was never as simple […]
[…] Steve, and, in publishing it, we breached the Official Secrets Act in a big way. But apart from being denounced in the House of Commons by a Conservative MP – who was among those listed – nothing happened. Evidently the British state had learned the lesson that prosecution merely makes those prosecuted the subject […]
[…] do they have to do to get the sack?) NB on this paragraph see the correction in Lobster 26. Kevin Taylor — Manchester businessman, Chair of Manchester Conservative Association, whose life and business were ruined by MI5 and the police looking for dirt with which to smear his friend John Stalker, then deputy chief […]
[…] according to some sources part-funded by Rupert Murdoch – to continue to defame many of his old elected political targets, thus ‘raising a favourable wind’ for the Conservative prime minister in the miners’ strike and all that followed. An earlier BBC political editor When John Cole was narrowly beaten by Peter Preston in the […]
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
On April 22, 1993 both BBC1 and BBC2 showed on their main evening news bulletins a rather lengthy piece concerning America’s latest development in weaponry — the non-lethal weapons concept. David Shukman, BBC Defence Correspondent, interviewed (Retired) U.S. Army Colonel John B. Alexander and Janet Morris, two of the main proponents of the concept. (1) … Read more
[…] threatened by Soviet expansionism (13). (This had always been Angleton’s view and the reason for his support of Israel.) By 1979 Commentary had become a full-blown neo- Conservative, pro-Reagan platform: the editor, Norman Podhoretz, had even seen the prospect of the ‘Finlandisation of America’ lurking behind detente. (14). Along the way two books had […]
[…] 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 […]
[…] Harold Macmillan, it was not surprising that the Nigerian political leader of great personal integrity and honesty — Awolowo — who based his party machine on the Conservative Party and was a devout Christian and believer in British fair play would soon after Independence find himself not in the President’s or Prime Minister’s office […]
[…] received. All aspects of running a railway have become far more expensive…’ Why should this be? First, of course, privatisation itself was a costly exercise. At a conservative estimate, the total cost of the process, including the amounts paid out by bidders, was reported to be at least £1bn. For the taxpayer, the direct […]
