Gregory Palast is the journalist who broke the ‘cash for access’ story in The Observer. Here is the text of a letter he wrote on August 18 1999 to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Neill Committee, by way of a preface and request to give oral evidence to that committee. My recommendations […]
[…] through a phone intercept at my end or his? (3) Searchlight smears O’Hara The Gable-Searchlight controversy resurfaced last year in the columns of the London left magazine Labour Briefing in the context of splits in the ranks of London anti-racists.(4) In October 1991 Larry O’Hara joined in the debate and reminded Labour Briefing readers […]
[…] become regarded as both a spokesman for youth and a great British entrepreneur Branson was duly courted by various UK politicians. The Tories liked him; later New Labour liked him, too. His astutely managed PR battles with British Airways made some think that Branson could (and would) provide cut price air travel. This never […]
[…] I have no way of knowing how many of these existed before Blunkett became Home Secretary; nor, indeed, how many of these preceded the arrival of the Labour government in 1997. But if he didn’t create them, Blunkett hasn’t scrapped them and it is hard to disagree with Jenkins’ comment: ‘This is bureaucracy gone […]
[…] this was the first conference raising issues of national security and freedom of expression and asked why no-one from the authorities was present. Many members of the Labour government had been very critical of, and voted against the OSA 1989 because it allowed the prosecution of whistleblowers, but a Labour Attorney General consented to […]
[…] politics, but rather toward scholarly and long-term ideological endeavour. Moreover, while we are happy to speak to and, we hope, influence Conservative groups, we speak to the Labour Party, trade unions or anyone open to some aspect of the libertarian position. The radicalism of our civil libertarian position on immigration, victimless crimes, sexual freedom […]
[…] 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 was branded a liar on the front page of the then Blair-backing Daily […]
[…] about his own writing, accepting editing suggestions on their merits. During a lunch break he said to me: ‘What’s a bright guy like you doing in the Labour Party?’ I replied: ‘What’s a bright guy like you doing in the SWP?’ We laughed. The second time we worked together was during our most minor […]
[…] on Northern Ireland. To get it on the air you have to get it past Ware. Comment? I wouldn’t dare. Enemies of Democracy? ‘The debate within the Labour right on how to handle the “left-wing problem” was often heated, indeed acrimonious… Many discussions took place “across the floor”. They normally came to nothing, Yet, […]
[…] Whistleblowers: Shirley Porter, homes for votes and twenty years of scandal in Britain’s rottenest borough Paul Dimoldenberg London: Politicos, 2006, £12.99, p/b The author was a Labour councillor in Westminster during Porter’s ‘reign of terror’ and was instrumental in eventually bringing her down. With an insider’s view he has written an immensely detailed […]
