Iraq and intelligence

Lobster Issue 65 (Summer 2013)

[PDF file]: […] When I became interested in the relationship between the intelligence and security services and the British political system in the late 1970s, it was believed on the Labour left that the intelligence and security services were allpowerful and unaccountable. They are still unaccountable in any real sense (their accountability to Parliament is notional) but […]

Thatcher versus the City of London

Lobster Issue 60 (Winter 2010)

[PDF file]: […] and was one of the causes of the inflation of the 1970s (which reached 25% in 1975). That inflation became a stick with which the Tories beat Labour and unions in the 1974-79 period and beyond, 98 Winter 2010 and a section of the Tory right beat the Heathites. Mrs Thatcher and her faction […]

The Richer, The Poorer, by Stewart Lansley

Lobster Issue 86 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] Lansley: ‘Instead, the pro-inequality model of political economy, dysfunctional as it has been, proved remarkably resilient.’ How and why has this happened in the 21st century under Labour, Coalition and Conservative governments? Lansley says the key explanation for Britain’s high poverty rate lies in profound economic and social shifts. These include the speed of […]

Just Boris by Sonia Purnell

Lobster Issue 64 (Winter 2012)

[PDF file]: […] felt obliged to permanently distance himself from News International, Johnson very deliberately decided to publicly associate himself with Murdoch, dismissing the ‘Hacking scandal’ as ‘codswallop’ and a Labour stunt. He very publicly invited Murdoch to be his guest at the Olympics. Without much doubt his thinking is that Murdoch will ride out the ‘Hacking […]

Collapse of stout party: Eden, Suez and America

Lobster Issue 74 (Winter 2017)

[PDF file]: […] started – as a major mistake. Lennox-Boyd, in turn, was a close political ally of Churchill. In another twist Ann Fleming was also having an affair with Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell (whom Eden personally disliked). Fleming’s property in Jamaica was not particularly well appointed and was somewhat isolated. During Eden’s stay at the […]

TO CATCH A SPY: How the Spycatcher Affair Brought MI5 in from the Cold by Tim Tate

Lobster Issue 89 (2024)

[PDF file]: […] on the Hollis matter in March 1981 was a lie. In those days lying to the Commons might have been a resigning issue. But since the leading Labour politicians of the time were afraid to go near any security issues, the Thatcher-Armstrong strategy wasn’t necessary. There is a wonderful German word, verschlimmbesserung, which means […]

The Return of the Public, and, Death of the Liberal Class

Lobster Issue

[…] Truthdig.com and a widely published writer of power, passion and refinement. He marks the decline of ‘the liberal class’ in the United States – the press, the labour movement, universities, the Democratic party and liberal religious institutions – from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He says there are now no […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] was talking to a City source yesterday (one who is strongly opposed to the investment bankers ‘soft coup’ of Westminster and Whitehall). He said that under New Labour, H.M. Treasury had been ‘utterly captured’ by the investment banking industry. He said it had happened through subscription to a ludicrously flawed ideology, the ‘revolving door’, […]

View from

Lobster Issue

[…] country in the world.7 In reality, depending on how this is measured, we are about 17th. I caught the tail end of an interview with a female Labour MP on Times Radio in early September. Alas I didn’t catch her name but she repeated this canard. It does seem to be people on the […]

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