The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] George Osborne saying that he had seen the figures and it was quite horrific in real life as opposed to spin life… .” ‘Clegg….had already changed his mind about the deficit reduction plans. He was concerned about the firestorm engulfing Greece, and worried that it would spread across Europe, as Spain appeared vulnerable ….he […]

Tokyo legend? Lee Harvey Oswald and Japan

Lobster Issue 70 (Winter 2015) FREE

[PDF file]: […] confused the high-priced Tokyo Queen Bee hostess who never existed with the beautiful Eurasian ‘White Russian’ at Iwakuni who also never existed. In the alembic of Donovan’s mind, the Tokyo Queen Bee B-girl now became fluent in Russian: ‘In Japan, Oswald, who was paid only $87 per month, frequented the Queen Bee Bar, a […]

Olivia Jayne Frank, 1956-2023

Lobster Issue 88 (2024) FREE

[PDF file]: […] of ritualistic obligation had robbed them of compassion. I was shocked to see that this important officer of the state of Israel did not dare speak his mind on the street. As he paced the floor, he told me that politics and ritual had crossed swords in the Holy Land for so long that […]

Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq by John W. Dower

Lobster Issue 61 (Summer 2011) FREE

[PDF file]: […] of war), the length and verbosity of the various US enquiries set up to determine culpability for being ‘unprepared’ at Pearl Harbour, suggest a widespread frame of mind that takes as its starting point that America is entitled to regard itself as invulnerable. 1 Could a ‘demonstration’ of the bomb have been laid on? […]

Sir John Sawer’s speech and some aspects of SIS PR

Lobster Issue 60 (Winter 2010) FREE

[PDF file]: […] ideal: i.e. he condemned torture and had the credibility to do 11 Question: how do you give a YouTube video legs? Answer: you remove it. Keep in mind that The Sunday Times reported ‘Sawers wants to phase out the image of the MI6 officer as a globetrotting James Bond figure who undertakes glamorous missions […]

Kelly Bond 007 essay

Lobster Issue

[…] began writing the 007 books, the official story is that Fleming began to write ‘the spy story to end all spy stories’ in order to ‘take his mind off an impending marriage’. While marriage for the long time bachelor was certainly in the works, other more important things were on his mind. Noel Coward, […]

The Mandelson legacy

Lobster Issue 91 (2025) FREE

[PDF file]: […] Here, for example, is his memo to general secretary Larry Whitty dated 19 September 1986: ‘If you are able to see John Booth today please bear in mind the following: 1) NUJ Chapel is meeting this morning and we need to see the outcome of that meeting first; 2) John has briefed a reporter […]

Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour’s Lost England by Sebastian Payne

Lobster Issue 82 (Winter 2021) FREE

[PDF file]: […] the Labour Party and working-class voters is broken, it takes something new to win them back. The party has yet to find an answer for Scotland, never mind in England.’ So how is Starmer to do that given the structural, economic and societal changes that Payne says ‘have made these parts of England more […]

Olivia Jayne Frank, 1956-2023

Lobster Issue free article

[PDF file]: […] of ritualistic obligation had robbed them of compassion. I was shocked to see that this important officer of the state of Israel did not dare speak his mind on the street. As he paced the floor, he told me that politics and ritual had crossed swords in the Holy Land for so long that […]

Accessibility Toolbar