British traditions in decline include a sense of the ridiculous as a weapon of state, jingoism and understatement. The last of these was always a brilliant British con: you only have to look at the gothic majesty of the palace of Westminster (Parliament) to realise we have never really done understatement. ‘A sense of the […]
Searchlight At the beginning of the essay on the Blairites above, I discuss the concept of political contamination, the denigration of people on the left by association – real or fictitious – with ideas or people on the right. The most enthusiastic users of the contamination device in Britain today are found in Searchlight magazine. […]
[…] not, he is the referee and he can send any man off the field and call our man on at any time he likes’. Presumably an exaggeration, MI5 felt strongly enough about the comment to have it excised from a 1981 Panorama programme, presented by Tom Mangold, the first ever made about ‘British intelligence’. […]
[…] Western engagement against Islamism in Western Asia would naturally create conflicts of loyalty. While MI6 might enjoy itself understanding the intricacies of Pathan tribal politics, it was MI5 that was going to have to pick up the pieces. As we move towards 2008, the last Prime Minister’s over-speedy insertion of expensive military collateral into […]
[…] curious press reports that both Shell and BP had hired ex-MI6 staff and a former German intelligence agent to infiltrate Greenpeace (3) and that Tesco had asked MI5 to investigate the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. In an obscure spat about salmon farming Tesco believed – apparently – that the RSPB had […]
[…] appeasement and of Anglo-German peace. (De Courcy) Extra-Parliamentary Ball, Sir George Joseph B. 1880.War Office 1911; HQ Irish Command 1914; British Expeditionary Force 1915-21; War Office, 1922. MI5; reorganised Conservative Research Department; signed the cheque which paid the forger of the Zinoviev letter; confidant of Chamberlain throughout his Prime Ministership; editor of Truth, a […]
[…] the police and army stepped beyond the law, in terms of indigenous collusion, is understandable if not to be condoned. What matters more to historians is how MI5, as an example, intervened in this process to service various agendas, some of which had little to do with fighting terrorism in Northern Ireland. The attempted […]
[…] in the political arena. Internal party groupings like the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee or Labour’s Tribune Group are also described and there is even an entry for MI5 (but not for Special Branch or MI6). Another useful feature of the volume is its listings of overseas groups or parties who have either a formal […]
[…] to tackle something as sensitive as immigration and concern about the impact on trade with Middle Eastern countries. The combination of these led the British state, through MI5, coming to a kind of unstated agreement with the Jihadists that they wouldn’t play at home. Hence the growth of Londonistan, argues Phillips. It is the […]
[…] and the other ‘a man who was high up in the Labour Party at the time…a double agent for the KGB and for the British intelligence agency MI5. He was also a raging homosexual. He wanted my father to use his black-magic, soul-cracking brain-washing techniques on young boys.’ This must be the late Tom […]
