View from Bridge 89

Lobster Issue

[…] of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them. Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism. Tony Blair reimagined a stale, outdated Labour Party into one that could […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 72 (Winter 2016) FREE

[PDF file]: […] the year he won the Nobel Prize for Economics. His belief in the centrality of controlling the economy’s money supply was adopted by the Tory right around Thatcher, who had rejected Keynesian notions of the state managing the economy. Previous to this, in 1972 when they were faced with rising unemployment, Edward Heath’s government […]

The long goodbye? Taking on the consultants

Lobster Issue 90 (2025) FREE
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[PDF file]: […] consultancies rocketed: At the time of the 1979 general election in the United Kingdom, the government was spending about £6 million on consulting services annually; when Margaret Thatcher stepped down as prime minister eleven years later, the amount was more than 40 times greater at £246 million.8 Where the Iron Lady failed, Reeves’ ‘Iron […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 61 (Summer 2011) FREE
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[PDF file]: […] the online condolence book for Smith1 show that Harold was held in high regard by Nigerians. Revolutionary defeatism A piece in the Guardian (19 March 2011), ‘ Thatcher papers reveal how she stoked rightwing rebellion in war against “wets”’, notes that Thatcher’s private secretary, Ian Gow MP, met with Labour MP Neville Sandelson, six […]

Consultants Challen

Lobster Issue

[…] consultancies rocketed: At the time of the 1979 general election in the United Kingdom, the government was spending about £6 million on consulting services annually; when Margaret Thatcher stepped down as prime minister eleven years later, the amount was more than 40 times greater at £246 million.8 Where the Iron Lady failed, Reeves’ ‘Iron […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 85 (Summer 2023) FREE
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[PDF file]: […] credible industrial strategy to get the UK back on its feet’.18 Well, well, well: ‘Industrial strategy’ and ‘the establishment’ is the language (and thought) of the pre- Thatcher era. Curious that he’s a City commentator because few in the City give a dull fuck about an industrial strategy – or the nation, for that […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] read Gerald James’ 1995 In The Public Interest, and James is quoted on the site. Andrew Rosthorn has pointed out that some of it appeared in ‘ Thatcher, Astra, Iraq & murder of Gerald Bull’ in Intelligence 81, 8 June 1998, p. 1. Bilderberg comes to Watford Watford? Strange choice of venue: close enough […]

Tittle-tattle

Lobster Issue 65 (Summer 2013) FREE

[PDF file]: […] many years. Criminal trials may reveal yet more about Murdoch, the Met and the Chipping Norton set. Then perhaps Murdoch, the South Yorkshire Police and the Margaret Thatcher set followed by Murdoch, the ‘war on terror’ warriors and the Tony Blair set? The Birtists The demise of BBC director general, George Entwistle, was hastened […]

I helped carry William Burroughs to the medical tent

Lobster Issue 59 (Summer 2010) FREE

[PDF file]: […] young black men. This argument forms part of the plot of the recent film The Bank Job (2006). 39 Summer 2010 re-emerge with the ascent of Margaret Thatcher. His success in establishing commercial radio in the 1930s and his high society connections – which lasted throughout his life – would clearly have been a […]

Six Moments of Crisis: inside British foreign policy by Gill Bennett

Lobster Issue 65 (Summer 2013) FREE

[PDF file]: […] indeed they have. The concentrated nature of the material yields some marvellous anecdotes and demolishes a few myths along the way. Thus those to whom the pre- Thatcher Tories were suave internationalist moderates may be surprised to learn that Selwyn Lloyd, Foreign Secretary at the time of Suez, ‘spoke no foreign languages, had never […]

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