[…] Hook mentions Rousset’s suggestion in Out of Step, op. cit. p. 432. The God that Failed (Hamish Hamilton/London, 1950) was a collection of six essays edited by Labour MP Richard Crossman, three by ‘the initiates’ (Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, and Richard Wright) and three by ‘worshippers from afar’ (Andre Gide, Louis Fischer, and Stephen […]
[…] on intelligence and security personnel who become MPs. Some of the material was familiar but less well known were Raymond Fletcher, and Le Cercle. Fletcher was a Labour MP who was witch-hunted by MI5 as a KGB asset when really an MI6 agent. New information on Le Cercle (aka the Pinay Circle: see Lobster […]
[…] us that “today, in Wallace’s mind, ‘Clockwork Orange’ has become a more sinister Mark Two which … went beyond destabilising the IRA; it was aimed at mainland Labour politicians – which just happens to dovetail with similar allegations, raised in Parliament from an entirely independent source, namely Peter Wright.” This really is extraordinary. In […]
In February this year, unnoticed by the press, a funeral took place in a quiet Sussex village. In attendance were some famous names from London society of the fifties and sixties, and two men in regulation dark suits from an undisclosed department of the Security Services. They had been contacts for the deceased, Maria Novotny, […]
[…] Bridewell police station. Ryan and Daly were rather vague characters to me, who lived in a political twilight world on the fringe of the trade union and labour movement. I met Ryan and we went to the Bridewell. Jordan emerged looking dishevelled and complained that he had retired for the night, only to be […]
[…] the banality and irrelevance,’ describing them as ‘uniformly nineteenth century minds pretending to relate to the twentieth century’. Another of those who have attended, Christopher Price, then Labour MP for Lewisham West, found it ‘all very fatuous……icing on the cake with nothing to do with the cake.’ (Eringer 1980, p. 26). Denis Healey, on […]
Parish Notices Thanks to Al Baron, Terry Hanstock, Daniel Brandt, Jane Affleck, Robin Whittaker (in particular), Tom Easton and Dr. David Turner for information since the last Lobster. An apology to David Guyatt not publishing his long and interesting reply to the criticism in ‘Feedback’ of his article on alleged US use of chemical weapons […]
[…] the agreement. There is considerable opposition to the MAI, especially from environmental and development organisations, amid fears that its provisions could damage environmental quality, social welfare and labour standards, and its progress has been slowed. Currently (May 1998) the MAI has not been signed, and seems likely to be further delayed, largely due to […]
[…] ) It’s a nice try, in a way, this pretence by Times columnist Kamm to be a left-winger. (For Kamm ‘left-winger’ means being a member of the Labour Party). It gives him a pitch – ‘left’ support for the Iraq War/’war on terror’ – that the media are supposed to find interesting. You can […]
Jim Phillips Pluto Press, London, 1995, £12.99 To study the relationship between the Labour government and the trade unions in the ’45-’51 government, Phillips provides the first detailed examination of which I am aware of the various dock strikes during the period. Phillips concludes that the various charges of ‘communist conspiracy’ made by members […]
