[…] consultancies rocketed: At the time of the 1979 general election in the United Kingdom, the government was spending about £6 million on consulting services annually; when Margaret Thatcher stepped down as prime minister eleven years later, the amount was more than 40 times greater at £246 million.8 Where the Iron Lady failed, Reeves’ ‘Iron […]
[…] Conservative MP Matthew Parris and Gerard Baker, former editor of The Wall Street Journal. They devoted their columns in The Times to bemoaning the decline of the Thatcher legacy (Baker, 17 October) and yearning for someone like Mrs Thatcher to sort things out (Parris, 20 October). The difficulty most of us have in changing […]
[…] in explaining Soviet policy and thinking just at the point when the Soviet Union was cracking up, thus smoothing to way for the Gorbachev relationship first with Thatcher and then with the Americans. ‘Decisive’ – maybe not; but not insignificant. Angus Hanton in his Vassal State, writes that 56% of British shares are now […]
[PDF file]: The Neoconservative Threat to World Order Washington’s perilous war for hegemony Paul Craig Roberts Atlanta (GA): Clarity Press, 2016, $29.95, p/b Chances are you already know the author’s writing: if you’re reading Lobster you’re probably also reading other left-leaning sites and Roberts is widely published on them. Roberts is a very striking figure. A distinguished […]
[PDF file]: […] unaffiliated member of the House of Lords. How is it, towards the East? For anyone wanting to actively avoid the ludicrous and delusional media overkill of the Thatcher funeral, the Diamond Jubilee and the Royal baby earlier this year, the mixed media exhibition that ran at the Calvert 22 gallery in May-June would have […]
[PDF file]: How New Labour stopped listening to the voter and why we need a new politics Deborah Mattinson London: Biteback, 2010, £17.99 People, Politics and Pressure Groups: Memoirs of a lobbyist Arthur Butler Hove: Picnic Publishing, £12.99, 2010 Tom Easton Deborah Mattinson is just one of the many early enthusiasts for what became New Labour to […]
[PDF file]: […] ‘given by the Prince of Wales in honour of Wafic Said and his charitable work, and to mark his eightieth birthday’. This wonderful man had given Margaret Thatcher ‘the 4 run of a lovely country house in Oxfordshire’ during her final years. (pp. 483, 535) Wafic Said, it is worth remembering, was involved in […]
[PDF file]: […] to reality as the revolutionary left’s ideas. But along with the delusions of the true believers, the ideologists, there has been politics, as usual. Those around Mrs Thatcher and Keith Joseph in the mid 1970s adopted socalled monetarism2 (a) because it gave them a stick with which to beat the (Keynesian) Heathites who had […]
[PDF file]: […] reoccurs elsewhere in the book. We’re told that, during the Cold War, leaks from heroic defectors and double agents helped preserve peace. For instance, they helped convince Thatcher that Mikhail Gorbachev was serious about reforming the Soviet Union. Norton-Taylor also gives honourable mentions to politicians like Robin Cook, Tam Dalyell and Menzies Campbell for […]
[PDF file]: […] like to be transgender two generations ago. But most of all it is a stunning indictment of the lawless, literally murderous, unaccountable British secret state in the Thatcher years. Olivia’s experience shows that MI5 committed arson, falsely imprisoned people, manipulated the National Insurance system, the passport office, the prison service, the criminal justice system, […]
