Publications and Book Reviews

Lobster Issue 9 (1985)

[…] strategies could be effective only in the wider context of the incorporation of the working class into the political order.” Blowing the gaffers Paul Demetriou Leveller/Monochrome April 1985 Interview with unnamed MI5 officer: details tapping, break-ins, surveillance (some of them included in the Clippings Digest). This is an important companion piece to the Massiter revelations.

Errors, corrections and updates

Lobster Issue 29 (1995)

[…] a long piece, over 5,000 words, on Newton’s political career, Bateman’s account (and the errors allegedly therein) and why he did not believe Newton had been an MI5 agent. Very interesting indeed. But he attached a condition: print intact, unedited, or not at all. So I sent it back. (I didn’t want to materially […]

The Enemy Within: Thatcher’s Secret War Against the Miners; GB84

Book cover
Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

[…] two striking Yorkshire miners; an account of the crucial role of the senior administrative officer of the NUM, based on the widely-held view that Roger Windsor was MI5 agent; and a brutal portrayal of the machinations and skulduggery which characterise the black underbelly of state politics. Most of the leading actors in this drama […]

Freedom of Information — new access legislation

Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

[…] and should inform you where it is. Absolute exemptions are not subject to any public interest test, and include information supplied by, or concerning: the Security Service, MI5; the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6; GCHQ; the Special Forces, e.g. the SAS; tribunals concerning intelligence and interception of communications including the Investigatory Powers Tribunal; and the […]

Brands and Britannia: Some aspects of national image and identity

Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

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 […]

Kincora: abuse and the British state

Lobster Issue 83 (Summer 2022)

[PDF file]: […] in its present form to investigate issues relating to the Army or MI5.’3 It is important to note that Sir Anthony Hart was expressing his concerns about MI5 publicly and in the presence of the press. That was an unusual step for a former High Court Judge to take, but it is now suspected […]

Spookaroonie!

Lobster Issue 58 (Winter 2009/2010)

[PDF file]: Inside British Intelligence 100 years of MI5 and MI6 Gordon Thomas London: JR books, 2009, £20 Spooks The Unofficial History of MI5 Thomas Hennessy and Claire Thomas Stroud (Glos.): Amberley, 2009, £30 Robin Ramsay I haven’t properly read either of these books and cannot really review them. However, there are some things I can […]

The Defence of the Realm

Lobster Issue

Contents Lobster 58 The Defence of the Realm The Authorised History of MI5 Christopher Andrew Page 134 Winter 2009/10 Lobster 58 London: Allen Lane, 2009, £30 Covering the same area as the Hennessy/Thomas book but with access to more recent MI5 documents, Andrew does at least refer to the dissenters named in the preceding […]

The Clandestine Caucus

Lobster Issue Clandestine Caucus (1996)

[PDF file]: […] later Neville Chamberlain and other supporters of the appeasement policy secretly bought and ran the weekly newspaper Truth. This was largely an operation run by the former MI5 officer and éminence grise of the time, Sir Joseph Ball. He used the official government information machine to push the Chamberlain line, formed the National Publicity […]

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