The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe

Lobster Issue 18 (1989)

In Lobster 17 we published two German intelligence reports on a covert propaganda group called the Pinay Circle. In this article we give background and investigate the Pinay Circle’s activities. Member of Parliament ‘G’: I don’t know if it (the Pinay Circle) has any political significance, but, in any case, it has little impact. […]

The influence of intelligence services on the British left

Lobster Issue

[…] within the Foreign Office. IRD worked abroad trying to combat nationalism in the British Empire, and at home to combat the British left. IRD fed information and propaganda on ‘communists’ within the labour movement through confidential recipients of its briefings one of whom we now know was the late Vic Feather into the media, […]

Tell me lies

Book cover
Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004)

Tell me lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq ed. David Millar London: Pluto, 2003, £12.99, p/back   One of the downsides of appearing every six months is that occasionally books arrive just too late for the issue in which they should appear and by the time the next issue appears […]

‘Privatising’ covert action: the case of the Unification Church

Lobster Issue 21 (1991)

[…] his view that his incarceration for illegal financial activities was a case of ‘religious persecution’.(10) To counter this deceptive imagery, which is sustained by systematic and extensive propaganda of the most transparent sort, some of the lesser-known political activities of the organizational complex run by Moon and his right-hand man, ‘former’ Korean Army colonel […]

Marketing the Third Reich: Persuasion, Packaging and Propaganda by Nicholas O’Shaughnessy

Lobster Issue 75 (Summer 2018)

[PDF file]: Mad men? Marketing the Third Reich: Persuasion, Packaging and Propaganda Nicholas O’Shaughnessy Routledge, 2017, £29.99 (p/b) Colin Challen The title of this book is both arresting, yet banal. And very chilling. To deal with the last point first: the twenty first century’s highly developed concept and practice of marketing is that you identify your […]

Spinfluence: the Hardcore Propaganda Manual for Controlling the Masses by Nicholas McFarlane

Lobster Issue 66 (Winter 2013)

[PDF file]: Spinfluence the Hardcore Propaganda Manual for Controlling the Masses Nicholas McFarlane Carpet Bombing Culture, Darlington (UK) 2013, £9.95, h/b W hen I was offered this by the publisher I said it sounded a bit agitprop for Lobster’s readers; and so it is. But it is worth noting. The author is a New Zealand designer1 […]

British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus

Book cover
Lobster Issue 42 (Winter 2001/2)

[…] He is well versed in the intricacies of the Information Research Department, the Congress for Cultural Freedom and other agencies of the formal apparatus of Cold War propaganda and combines this with a detailed, analytical knowledge of the British and US film industries. The author has a fascinating chapter on the screening of George […]

After Iraq: some FCO/SIS issues

Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

[…] about facilitating those circumstances, if any; ‘public relations’ could be seeking to persuade the public such circumstances had arisen even though this would be a lie; ‘ propaganda’ could be telling the public how to think. (Although both can be used concurrently, normally PR is used when there is sufficient time for persuasion to […]

The Dirty War, and, The SAS in Ireland (Book reviews)

Lobster Issue 21 (1991)

[…] Special Branch, military intelligence, MI5 and MI6, was uncoordinated. Much has been written about that period, some of it honest journalism, but most of it (emphasis added) propaganda inspired by the terrorists and their supporters…. One area of the dirty war which I was obliged to confront was the use of black propaganda by […]

A guided democracy

Lobster Issue 46 (Winter 2003)

A guided democracy The following appeared in the Daily Telegraph 23 June 2003. ‘Edward Heath created a secret government propaganda unit to persuade the British people to accept the Common Market. Civil servants were engaged in a dirty tricks department of the Foreign Office to cover up the threat to sovereignty and provide rapid […]

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