[…] to Mozambique. Perhaps the Foreign Office really does know that by these means Mozambique will be won for the West. But is that truly the aim in mind? If we stand back and look at southern Africa as a whole, and we consider British policy in the wider region, doubt rushes in.” She then […]
Researching the European State: a critical guide Edited by Tony Bunyan Statewatch PO Box 1516, London N16 0EW £7.00 With sixty A4 pages plus a six page index, this is, as the title suggests, an annotated bibliography. The flyer which came with it accurately described it thus: ‘This is the first bibliography on the European […]
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
[…] remains questionable – and here the CIA dimension takes on a greater importance. But neither was the end of ideology simply a CIA plot. With this in mind, what is perhaps more relevant is how this anti-ideological standpoint enabled the Congress to hold together a broad crosssection of the intellectual community who saw it […]
See note(1) Very few notions generate as much intellectual resistance, hostility, and derision within academic circles as a belief in the historical importance or efficacy of political conspiracies. Even when this belief is expressed in a very cautious manner, limited to specific and restricted contexts, supported by reliable evidence, and hedged about with all sort … Read more
[…] 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 […]
[…] bleak winter of 1944-45, when Philby was busily forming his new Soviet counter-espionage section, that Muggeridge met him again… Two small incidents imprinted themselves indelibly on Muggeridge’s mind. Each concerned Philby. The first was a heated discussion at table about the rights and wrongs of withholding important Bletchley intercepts from the Soviet Union. It […]
[…] 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.
[…] you get some actors?’ (There were two sitting in the room, drinking tea.) No: Loach wanted us to improvise it. So in front of some professional actors, mind, we spent an excruciating 15 minutes trying to improvise a dialogue about the 1970s, pretending to be a British Army officers engaged in a cabal. We […]
[…] 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. […]
