[…] snippets of political gossip; but at £29.50 for 200 pages? 1 See the review of his Thinking the Unthinkable in Lobster 28 p. 33. From Blitz to Blair: a new history of Britain since 1939 ed. Nick Tiratsoo Phoenix (Orion), London,1997, £7.99 pb This collection of essays covering the 1930s through to the arrival […]
[…] Spin-doctors (e.g Alastair Campbell) are propagandists. They are not public affairs strategists who prepare for all possible audiences/crises before they happen. The mistake made by Prime Minister Blair and his unelected advisers, including civil servants, was not anticipating that, following the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, rather than a spin-doctor, they needed (public […]
[…] little less potent, and Greg Palast experienced quite a few of them when he brought his brand of clever, witty and vigorous exposure to bear on the Blair government in 1998. For detailing the corruption at the heart of New Labour in his Lobbygate reports in The Observer (see Lobsters 36 and 38), Palast […]
[…] 1971-1973. ‘Old Labour’ did OK. It was just a shame it didn’t have a better leader. Some of the Callaghan obituaries claimed that he was consulted by Blair on some issues. There is no evidence of this. Blair, paying tribute, said that Callaghan was a ‘giant of the Labour movement’. While this may have […]
[…] The fruits of this system are still very much alive in the UK. Despite his image as a moderniser of both British politics and social attitudes, Tony Blair is a typical product of it. As a politician, he depends upon the skills of an advocate, rhetoric and persuasion, rather than analysis, upon charm rather […]
[…] the Sun, which went around the world as an ‘exclusive’. It will be remembered by many overseas not for the sun-drenched image of a post-invasion youthful-looking Mr Blair, but because the same photograph included a large impression of the soles of his shoes, a cultural gaff in some countries, symbolic of treading on ‘unholy’ […]
[…] make Ayer a peer. In the Lords Ayer would no doubt have performed similar services for the government as Meta Ramsay is now thought to provide the Blair administration. Having later to settle for a knighthood, left Ayer with a life-long detestation of Harold Wilson. This whole Camden Town social group felt, though they […]
Ed. Jon Melissen London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, h/b, £50.00 Just after World War 1, a group of the liberal-left in Britain began campaigning against orthodox – i.e. secret – diplomacy. It had caused the mind-bogglingly stupid carnage of World War 1, they argued, and had to go. This was the Union for Democratic Control […]
[…] the British economy to make it fit for EEC entry. In Heath’s day the major co-conspirator in the project was the Cabinet Secretary Sir William Armstrong. With Blair it was his chief media wallah, Alistair Campbell. Thus the world has changed. Casualties So, after two reports by noble Lords and thousands of critical column […]
[…] and his closeness to key people in New Labour to keep his readers in the dark over matters of peace and war and much else under the Blair premiership. Preston practises deception by omission as well as by lying. Network of influence It will take a longer piece than this to trace the network […]
