1976 anmd all that

Lobster Issue

[…] 23 November 1976 Tony Benn noted in his diary, ‘Peter suspected the figures produced by the Treasury.’ As did Prime Minister Callaghan: ‘The only doubt in my mind, borne of previous experience, was how far to trust the figures.’ James Callaghan, Time and Chance (London: Collins, 1987) p. 422. Healey wrote: ‘I cannot help […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] review was reposted at Aaronovitch Watch at . put on their front pages the fact that the Labour Party had hired a former Obama strategist to master mind their forthcoming election campaign. Of course they looked to America. Where else? As these columns have reported ad nauseam for nearly twenty years, the Labour Party […]

South of the border (occasional snippets from)

Lobster Issue 91 (2025)

[PDF file]: […] of ‘crass assassination plots’.2 Which is an odd way of describing what had happened, as the Merriam-Webster definition of crass is ‘having or indicating such grossness of mind as precludes delicacy and discrimination’.3 Indeed, leading figures from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) would have it very differently. Speaking a month after the […]

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 […]

Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation by Liz Featherstone

Lobster Issue 75 (Summer 2018)

[PDF file]: […] big decisions’ at or . 2 Labour was defeated in the 1992 election, the party was repositioned under these guidelines. A ‘thorough examination of the state of mind of Britain’s voters’ was commissioned by Mandelson. The report ‘Labour and Britain in the 1990s’ was stage one: the second was a policy review learning the […]

Tokyo legend? Lee Harvey Oswald and Japan

Lobster Issue 70 (Winter 2015)

[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 […]

In the Thick of It: The private diaries of a minister Alan Duncan

Lobster Issue 82 (Winter 2021)

[PDF file]: […] . 10 8 chaired the Jewish Leadership Council, a key body in promoting the ‘Labour anti-semitism’ scare?11 This is just one of many questions that come to mind reading this tour d’horizon of the much-travelled diarist. But first he must be thanked for telling us so much about the workings of UK government and […]

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, […]

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

Lobster Issue 60 (Winter 2010)

[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 […]

Olivia Jayne Frank, 1956-2023

Lobster Issue 88 (2024)

[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 […]

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