[PDF file]: A Difference of Opinion: My Political Journey Jim Sillars Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2021, £14.99 John Booth There aren’t many people still active in British politics who served in the Royal Navy when sailors were given 200 free cigarettes a month.1 But Jim Sillars is one of them and has lived to reflect thoughtfully on the 65 […]
[PDF file]: […] for the Conservative Right, who of course didn’t mind any of this. There were ‘rumours’ – only – that he ‘was engaged as a trouble-shooter for the Thatcher government’ in the early 1980s. Most damaging to his reputation, however, may be the fact revealed here that when the Argylls marched into Crater – ostensibly […]
[PDF file]: Hope & Despair: Lifting the lid on the murky world of Scottish politics Neil Findlay Edinburgh: Lulath Press, £14.99 But What Can I Do?: Why politics has gone so wrong, and how you can help fix it Alastair Campbell London: Hutchinson Heinemann, £22.00 John Booth Here we have two approaches to politics and public life […]
[PDF file]: […] However, since 1970 (Edward Heath – 46% of the votes cast) neither Labour nor Conservatives have polled above 45% of the votes cast in a general election. Thatcher didn’t get above 44%, Blair peaked at 43% and 1 This adversarial mindset even extends to the architecture of the House of Commons: two narrow rows […]
[PDF file]: Tottenham burning: the minor practitioners of Soros’ “open society” Dr T. P. Wilkinson Mr David Cameron, the Etonian prefect of Her Majesty’s Britannic government, was quoted responding to the unrest in London and other cities: ‘We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way. We will not put up with this in our country. […]
[…] listen to polls and focus groups for their professed views, I find myself unable to suppress the thought: I wonder what they are really thinking? Take Margaret Thatcher: what did she really think she was doing when she fronted the creation of the grossly unequal society we now have? Frank Field MP gave us […]
[…] listen to polls and focus groups for their professed views, I find myself unable to suppress the thought: I wonder what they are really thinking? Take Margaret Thatcher: what did she really think she was doing when she fronted the creation of the grossly unequal society we now have? Frank Field MP gave us […]
[PDF file]: Too Stoned The Atlantic and its Enemies: a personal history of the Cold War Norman Stone London: Allen Lane, 2010, £30, h/b You remember Norman Stone: one of Mrs Thatcher’s favourite historians and occasional speechwriter for her. I had not read any of his books but I picked up a copy of this in my […]
[PDF file]: […] that under his particular scheme of Christian charity, ‘(p)eople will not starve to death, although their standard of living may not be sustained’. Falwell singled out Margaret Thatcher, who had just become Prime Minister in Britain, for particular praise. Having thus established his conservative credentials, he went on to address the ‘culture wars’ agenda […]
[PDF file]: […] occasionally go to non-left figures such as John Major, who was prepared to countenance contacts with the IRA prior to the Good Friday Agreement – something that Thatcher would never have tolerated. 1 So far, so good. Who in their right mind wants Farage, Trump, Le Pen and their ilk bellowing their lies and […]
