[…] 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 […]
Hugo Young Macmillan, 1998, £20 I cannot stand Hugo Young. He is a long-winded, pompous arsehole whose columns in the Guardian are mostly a waste of paper and ink. But he has his uses, notably as a mouthpiece for the Foreign Office. In this book he has revealed in infinitely greater detail than before the … Read more
[…] A bit like speaking Latin to the Reverend Iain Paisley. (14) It was another PR opportunity lost. Spook PR and Policing al-Qaida One reason why Prime Minister Blair could have added good manners to Britain’s arsenal in the fight against al-Qaida, is because the government needs the assistance of others to protect our citizens […]
[…] Box 3328, London WC1N 3XX 70pp., £4 Online at http://www.red-star-research.org.uk/rap/rapframe.html There is a very good Website, www.red-star-research.org.uk, which is the best single source of information on the Blair government, its financial supporters and networks. This pamphlet is a kind of spin-off from that site – the previous Revolutions Per Minute pamphlets can be read […]
Crime fighting? There must many candidates for the title ‘The most damaging thing I have read about this government’. My current candidate is a piece by Simon Jenkins, ‘A Keep Police off the Streets Strategy Unit’ (The Times 2 February 2002). After reminding the reader that in the UK the police are a local service, […]
Paul Lashmar and James Oliver Sutton Publishing, Stroud (UK) £25.00 hb This is a really interesting and important book – perhaps the most important book about the British secret state since Fitzgerald and Bloch’s British Intelligence and Covert Action in the early 1980s. The incremental uncovering of the Information Research Department (IRD) story has been […]
