Spy Master: The Betrayal of MI5

Lobster Issue 31 (June 1996)

[…] The facts are somewhat different. As early as mid-1961 Ward was being run by the Security Service officer, Keith Wagstaffe, then working for D1 (a), Operations, Counter- intelligence. The Service decided to try and ‘honeytrap’ Ivanov, for which Ward was most willing and eager to provide a suitable female – Christine Keeler. After things […]

The Labour Party

Book cover
Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)

[…] to them; on other issues that clearly bore on the question of war, like decolonisation, Europe, and the economy; on possible extraneous influences, like business and the intelligence community; on strands of Labour opinion outside the parliamentary party – trade unions, Fabians, pressure groups, and at constituency level; and a little further back in […]

Phoenix: Policing the Shadows, and, Origins of the Present Troubles in Northern Ireland

Book cover
Lobster Issue 33 (Summer 1997)

[…] shot. Phoenix found his activities curtailed and was fearful that the Protestants were going to be sold out. He believed that the handing over of responsibility for intelligence work to MI5 was part of this sellout. Those thought most likely to oppose any deal, whether politicians, civil servants or even police, were themselves to […]

Digging in the Oyston archive

Lobster Issue 51 (Summer 2006)

[…] largely unaware that he had been marked down as a dangerous enemy of the centralised British political system. According to the former MI5 officer David Shayler, the intelligence services file on Owen Oyston was re-examined in 1992 by the head of MI5, when it looked as if Neil Kinnock’s revived Labour party might defeat […]

Mrs Thatcher, North Sea oil and the hegemony of the City

Lobster Issue 27 (1994)

Introduction I began writing this in the early 1980s. If you were then reading the Guardian or the Observer, and knew a little, simple economics, it didn’t take genius to notice that while the UK’s manufacturing economy was being decimated by Conservative Party economic policy, the City of London was booming. More interestingly, and less … Read more

Obituaries

Lobster Issue 33 (Summer 1997)

[…] published by him in Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland to circumvent censorship, it was subsequently republished in an expanded edition. Under the new title, The British Intelligence Services in Action, it has become a modern classic, is virtually impossible to now locate, and still compares well with subsequent volumes by Martin Dillon, Paul […]

Operation Mind Control

Lobster Issue 29 (1995)

[…] vile vibes of any photocopy shop! The Jonestown section is very thorough, and Bowart makes a strong – if perhaps exaggerated – case for some sort of intelligence connection. Likewise for the horrific events in Waco, Texas. The mind control transmitter section, though, is disappointing. I too have read the articles suggesting we plant […]

The Men with the Guns

Lobster Issue 8 (1985)

The Men with the Guns G.F. Newman (Sphere, London 1984) I’ve got a lot of time for G.F. Newman. He’s written some of the best, sharpest, things about contemporary Britain: the Law and Order series and the Terry Sneed novels are the obvious places to start. But this – perhaps because of the shift to … Read more

Lobbying

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] $45, the Chinese-English chart, based on institutional and personnel changes since May 2000, outlined the government structure of China. The open information is the sort of thing intelligence officers used to collate. The Times 28 August 2006 The Guardian 26 January 2006 Following the first Gulf War, British civil engineering contractors were disappointed not […]

Edward Heath made me angry

Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

[…] volumes, Granny made me an anarchist (London: Scribner, 2004) . Recommended. Notes 1 Christie knew enough about Italian politics to write the biography of Italian terrorist and intelligence asset, Delle Chiaie. This is available from 2 There is one historical irony worth pointing out. Edward Heath, who made the British left (and Christie) angry […]

Accessibility Toolbar