[…] 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 […]
[…] are presumably all institutionally incorruptible, although I wonder if that dream would stand up to close examination. (3) ‘New’ Labour is as yet only a state of mind the Labour Party remains the Labour Party, warts and all. It is right that these warts be exposed, for the slow pace of reform may […]
[…] 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.
[…] Parliament. As to the charges against Fiore, having no Italian contacts and distrusting greatly the scant British press reports of the matter, I still have an open mind, and would be grateful for any information readers of Lobster can supply on this important matter. Times 19 February 1983 and Sunday Times 20 February 1983. […]
[…] suspect is named on net’, Sunday Times 11 February. ) Having either been given access to Cryptome’s logfiles or hacked into them, the MoD then changed its mind and, quoting the spurious 233 figure, declared this not widely in the public domain, and threatened the newspapers with an injunction if they published the name. […]
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
[…] For the military it was straightforward: the US had the strategic nuclear advantage (the ‘missile gap’ had been forgotten) and thus could and should invade Cuba. Never mind even pretending to the world that it was a Cuban insurrection – the dumb little plan behind the Bay of Pigs invasion. As if the cover […]
Steamshovel 11 The arrival of a new Steamshovel is an event. No matter that I am going to want to be picky about something in it, every issue contains items both substantial and intriguing – and much that would find a home nowhere else, that I can think of. (Except maybe Lobster. I wish I […]
[…] of the reader. Did the publisher rush things, hoping to capitalise on the topicality of the Scott Report? A few revisions with the interested lay reader in mind might have led to a rather more accessible product. All this is a pity because the overall effect is lucid, penetrating and convincing. The five propositions […]
