[…] appeared in 1991. This is easily the most interesting and informative book on the Thatcher years to have appeared so far. Ranelagh was a member of the Conservative Research Department (CRD) between 1975-79 — a member of the internal opposition to Mrs Thatcher while ‘Thatcherism’ was being cobbled together by group around her. The […]
[…] by Assistant Secretary Will Clayton, a liberal in the Hullian tradition. Morgenthau left the Treasury and the post of Secretary was taken by Fred Vinson, a fiscally conservative mid-Western machine politician. White’s influence began to diminish (after the end of the war he came under suspicion of being a Soviet agent).(35) Power shift The […]
[…] to Stephen Marshall’s important but flawed book, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, she’s just another ‘fallen liberal’ who either provides ineffective and impotent criticism of the present neo- conservative order or actually feeds it. It’s because of the essential truth in much of what Marshall says about former Left renegades in his book, that I […]
[…] (3) Porter seems to be unaware of the literature concerning the role of what has been called the ‘core institutional nexus’. So he can argue that the Conservative Party’s right turn in the 1970s was a function of disappearing paternalism, a product in turn of decolonisation. This very sweeping post hoc ergo propter hoc […]
[…] diverse expressions of sexuality; styles of dress and appearance; life style attributes such as drug-taking or nomadic travelling; personally held philosophies and political positions; and even more conservative views such as an insistence on the use of cash rather than cheques or credit (10). All of these things militate against order in the strictest […]
The debate about whether the British should have a military presence East of Suez seemed to have been settled under the Wilson-Callaghan Government in the 1960s and 1970s. The process of withdrawal started with the independence of India and Pakistan (widely celebrated in the UK media recently on its sixtieth anniversary), was confirmed by the […]
[…] Ann Arbor: Pluto Press; 2007, £14.99 (UK) $24.95 (US), p/b Laughland is an interesting figure, whose writing appears in media across the ideological spectrum, from the conservative right to The Guardian and here, Pluto Press. It is thus a little hard to identify his politics. Three years ago David Aaronovitch wrote about him. […]
Compromised Reporting Taking its cue from a powerful network of far-right radio commentators, the American press insists on noting only those financial scandals which don’t sully ultra- conservative politicians. Of either party. For example: Rush Limbaugh, who has become the Republican Party’s Goebbels, loudly applauded Clinton’s appointment of Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, an appalling […]
[…] JOSEPH KBE (1936) OBE (19) B 1885, D 10.7.61 KINGS COLL LONDON 1913 BAR 1914 EUROPEAN WAR 1921 MI5 (CIVIL ASSIST TO MIL INTELLIGENCE) 1924 HEAD OF CONSERVATIVE CENTRAL OFFICE INTELLIGENCE DEPT (RENAMED PUBLICITY DEPT) 1930-39 DIRECTOR CONSERVATIVE RESEARCH DEPT 1934-39 DEP CHAIRMAN NATIONAL PUBLICITY BUREAU 1940-42 DEP CHAIRMAN SECURITY EXEC – OVERSEEING THE […]
[…] Healey become leader many commentators believe the SDP would never have been launched and the result of the 1983 election would have been different (a much lower Conservative majority). By staying on and adopting an easy-going and lacklustre stance, Callaghan gave credibility to the many demands for a radical change of direction. When he […]
