View from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] of the mid 1970s – control the money supply and you can control inflation – appealed because it was so simple. It took hold, particularly in the Conservative Party, where what became the Thatcherites adopted it and wrecked the British manufacturing economy with it between 1980 and 1984. Margaret Thatcher was a politician who […]

view from bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] of the mid 1970s – control the money supply and you can control inflation – appealed because it was so simple. It took hold, particularly in the Conservative Party, where what became the Thatcherites adopted it and wrecked the British manufacturing economy with it between 1980 and 1984. Margaret Thatcher was a politician who […]

The Rise of New Labour: Into Office

Lobster Issue 68 (Winter 2014) FREE

[PDF file]: […] excessively high exchange rate.’ – Wynne Godley, The Observer (Business) 23 August 1998. By the time Labour took office Brown and Blair had promised to toe the conservative line on economic policy: no income tax rises, no increased public spending, no attempts to use government to direct the economy; and no reacquisition of the […]

Is there a ‘political class’?

Lobster Issue 61 (Summer 2011) FREE

[PDF file]: Is there a ‘political class’? Scott Newton It has become fashionable to argue that Britain is in the grip of its own ‘political class’. Most recently the idea has been promulgated by Peter Oborne, in his 2007 book, The Triumph of the Political Class. I have been sceptical about this, remembering the dominance of Oxbridge-educated […]

Count Bonde and the search for a compromise peace 1939-1941

Lobster Issue 90 (2025) FREE

[PDF file]: […] It would be interesting to know a bit more about him. Simon Matthews is writing a study of Winston Churchill’s period as First Lord of the Admiralty 1939-1940, for publication in 2026. Her son, Sir John Barlow, continued the political tradition sitting as a National Liberal and Conservative MP between 1945 and 1966. 8 5

Labour, the anti-semitism crisis & the destroying of an MP by Lee Garratt

Lobster Issue 82 (Winter 2021) FREE

[PDF file]: […] that recaptured the seat for Labour with a majority of 2,015. Garratt introduces his short but well-sourced book with events two years later which led to the Conservative party regaining Derby North in 2019 with 4.8 per cent swing and with Williamson coming bottom of the poll as an or 1 Independent with 635 […]

Count Knut Bonde and the Search for a Compromise Peace 1939-1941

Lobster Issue

[…] It would be interesting to know a bit more about him. Simon Matthews is writing a study of Winston Churchill’s period as First Lord of the Admiralty 1939-1940, for publication in 2026. Her son, Sir John Barlow, continued the political tradition sitting as a National Liberal and Conservative MP between 1945 and 1966. 8 5

The Lost Peace by Richard Sakwa

Lobster Issue 88 (2024) FREE

[PDF file]: […] of either these days, at least on television. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, given the revolving door between the BBC News and Current Affairs department and the Conservative Party.10 Scott Newton is Emeritus Professor of Modern British and International History at Cardiff University. I tried to cover some of these issues in my, ‘Historical […]

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