Chris Hani book

Lobster Issue

[…] over the past 40 years or so.4 He quotes a South African report from 1991 describing it as ‘an informal forum of influential representatives of a ” conservative cast of mind”’ – which is what Pinay/Le Cercle was and remains. Among recent British participants are former Conservative MPs Norman Lamont, Rory Stewart and Jonathan […]

Brexit beginnings

Lobster Issue 87 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] a merchant bank. He was thus well aware of the psychological outlook that existed in the City. 2 2 Enter Goldsmith Post-1992, the official position of the Conservative government remained that the UK would rejoin the ERM as soon as was practicable. The problem was Major never had enough Conservative votes to execute such […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] told that some British Jews are preparing to leave the UK in the event of a Labour victory.27 But wait: that came from the Chairman of the Conservative Party and he was referring to people he claims to know. These comments (and there were many similar in the first week of the election campaign) […]

Chris Hani book copy

Lobster Issue

[…] over the past 30 years or so.3 He quotes a South African report from 1991 describing it as ‘an informal forum of influential representatives of a ” conservative cast of mind”’ – which is what Pinay/Le Cercle was and remains. Among recent British participants are former Conservative MPs Norman Lamont, Rory Stewart and Jonathan […]

Holding pattern

Lobster Issue 69 (Summer 2015)

[PDF file]: […] Murdoch has a slyer sense of humour than we realised, since it was precisely the abolition of the ‘fairness doctrine’ that enabled the growth of the rabidly- conservative self-styled ‘fair and balanced’ Fox News. Murdoch’s covert pas de deux with the Gipper raises interesting questions about news coverage of some of the 14 CIA’s […]

Beaumont novel copy

Lobster Issue

[…] reports, while lawyers provide litigation support. . . . What’s missing from those paragraphs (and the report generally) is the millions the Russians have given to the Conservative Party.4 Why is it missing? The Intelligence and Security Committee has a Conservative majority. Add those Russian millions to the more than ten million given to […]

A tale of two Islingtons: How Blair opened the door for Corbyn

Lobster Issue 77 (Summer 2019)

[PDF file]: […] an uneasy truce between two organized groupings, had the failure of Prime Minister James Callaghan to hold an autumn ‘78 election not opened the way to a Conservative win in ‘79. After which the failure of Callaghan to immediately resign the leadership of the Labour Party led to the creation of the SDP, to […]

View from Bridge 87

Lobster Issue

[…] of the public services after 40 years of denigration from the right, but glamour? And on 2 September we had former Tory MP Matthew Parris on the Conservative government’s recent decision to allow house-builders to be excused from clearing up the polluting effects of more houses. Parris was outraged but did not mention that […]

View from

Lobster Issue

[…] such ideas in this country, our authors, like most people, are unable to change their minds. Other recent examples of this phenomenon have been displayed by former Conservative MP Matthew Parris and Gerard Baker, former editor of The Wall Street Journal. They devoted their columns in The Times to bemoaning the decline of the […]

The Mandelson legacy

Lobster Issue 91 (2025)

[PDF file]: […] year as Labour’s communications chief, was another BAP recruit alongside Jeremy Paxman, who he was soon to join at the BBC. Paxman reportedly apologised to Mandelson after Conservative MP Matthew Parris ‘outed’ him on Newsnight. The BBC management then placed a protective barrier around Mandelson’s private life.14 Evan Davis was a younger ‘fellow’ of […]

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