The Cecil King coup plot as precursor to Gordon Brown’s ‘government of all the talents’ Students of parapolitics are divided as to the seriousness of the Cecil King coup plot of 1968 to establish what he called a ‘businessman’s government’, a permanent coalition government dominated by the right of the Labour Party but with unelected … Read more
[…] had graduated from writing for Lobster (see number 24) to one of Canada’s leading daily papers, the Globe and Mail; and had done so by changing his mind and accepting that the Warren Commission was correct. In the Globe and Mail of January 21 this year there is another large piece by Mr Van […]
[…] Belfast worsened and, as an interim measure, Gibbons ordered 500 rifles to be transported to Dundalk on the border. The rifles had been stockpiled with this in mind – against the advice of Kelly, as they were traceable to the Irish Army – after a potential purchaser in August 1969 turned out to have […]
[…] about Spanish history and just skipped those sections.) The book as a whole is an interesting account of the post-war British left, albeit from one particular viewpoint; and, despite odd flashes of score-settling, Meltzer is an amusing raconteur. But a memoir without a name index…..? A metaphor involving tits and a bull comes to mind.
[…] and Technology http://www7.nationalacademies.org/nsb/NSB_Reports.html Report from National Academy of Science’s National Research Council, 4 November 2002. Recommends highest priority be placed in 4 areas: developing calmatives (sleep-inducing and mind altering) and malodorants to control crowds; more advanced directed-energy systems for stopping vehicles or vessels; marine barrier systems to stop attack vessels and protect perimeters; and […]
It is still possible to find an interesting Penguin Special that appeared in 1958. British Economic Policy Since the War, by Andrew Shonfield, then Economics Editor of The Observer, remains a striking piece of work. Among his conclusions were: that the maintenance of a separate Sterling Area, giving the comforting feeling and appearance of great … Read more
Inside Intelligence Anthony Cavendish Palu Publishing Ltd. 1987 Although many hundreds of books have been written on British Intelligence, very few have tackled post-war intelligence in any kind of depth or with any degree of reliability. By contrast, we tend to believe that we know quite a lot about the workings of the CIA. But … Read more
A. J. Davies Little Brown and Co London, 1995, £20 Davies provides in equal measure a perceptive and comprehensive account of the modern Conservative Party which, hopefully, will lead to further reappraisals of Conservative history. In contrast to, for example, Lord Blake’s standard history of the Party over much the same period, We, The Nation … Read more
[…] that someone’s lying, or they may simply have been produced by fallible human beings. You start out by doubting the official story, but you keep an open mind and apply the same sceptical standards to all the alternative versions. Debunking an error is an endless process, even if you believe you’ve seen a white […]
[…] the siting of US missiles around Russia in his capacity as Poland’s Foreign Minister. Mention Poland in British politics and the name Denis McShane MP springs to mind. The son of a Polish émigré, McShane was, like Sikorski, deeply involved in Solidarity there before he rose to prominence in international relations, in his case […]
