All In It Together: England in the early 21st Century by Alwyn Turner

Lobster Issue 82 (Winter 2021)

[PDF file]: […] (combined with the failure to find any of the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that had been used to justify the invasion) tainted Iraq irredeemably in the public mind. Back home, the political scene is viewed through the lens less of the big parties and of ‘Westminster bubble’ stories than by telling the stories of […]

Deaths in Parliament: a legend re-examined

Lobster Issue 73 (Summer 2017)

[PDF file]: […] Alder 
 The terrorist attack staged by Khalid Masood on 22 March 2017, in which he attempted to enter Parliament, raised some questions. Most interesting, to my mind, was the matter of how he managed to arrive with such precision at the moment when the Carriage Gate to the South of the parliamentary estate […]

In The Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister by Alan Duncan

Lobster Issue 85 (Summer 2023)

[PDF file]: […] 24 September 2017 he is recording that ‘I have lost my respect for him. He is a clown, a self-centred ego, an embarrassing buffoon, with an untidy mind and sub-zero diplomatic judgement. He is an international stain on our reputation’. And to make matters even worse, he ‘thinks he is the next Churchill’. (p. […]

‘Nobody told us we could do this’

Lobster Issue 64 (Winter 2012)

[PDF file]: […] be an increasing reliance on paying for health care. Considering this wide-ranging and consistent approach to ordering life in the UK, the only comparison that comes to mind is with 18th century style mercantilism. Are we returning to this? A society in which wealth is based on trade, commerce and property ownership rather than […]

War on Terror Inc. by Solomon Hughes

Lobster Issue 58 (Winter 2009/2010)

[PDF file]: […] just giving away part of the power of the state which NuLab were supposed to be trying to articulate in the interests of the British people (never mind the less well off/ disadvantage/deprived/poor/working class – pick a term). Such privatisation speaks of extremely low self-esteem: for we – the state and politicians – are […]

The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal by Jon Stock

Lobster Issue 90 (2025)

[PDF file]: […] things would work, then he would try them and see. Failure would be down to the patient; success was his alone. What was his theory of the mind? (Though theory might dignify and elevate his thinking, such as it was.) It was quite simple and, shorn of psychiatric and psychoanalytic baggage, it is revealed […]

Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do It by Chris Bryant

Lobster Issue 87 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] When I look around the Commons, I see dozens of people who have made a lasting difference for good’. Even those MPs whose political ideas ‘may to mind be completely round the twist, unfeeling and cruel’ nevertheless did not start out ‘misguided, let alone evil’. (pp. 14-15). This seems to be taking Christian charity […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 89 (2024)

[PDF file]: The view from the bridge Robin Ramsay As always, thanks to Nick Must and Garrick Alder for editorial help with Lobster. Check this I am not a lover of faction. I prefer my facts and my fiction distinct. I didn’t even read Chris Mullin’s A Very British Coup. However I received an email from one […]

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