The unspeakable Martin Kettle of The Guardian is a political journalist who has been pretty close to, and supportive of, New Labour since the 1990s. His article ‘The special relationship that squandered a noble cause’ (27 May 2006) opened with this: ‘The long arc of Tony Blair’s rise and decline has been punctuated by journeys … Read more
James Rusbridger I. B. Tauris, London 1991, £8.95 James Rusbridger is Peter Wright’s cousin oddly enough, and occasionally assisted MI6 in the 1950s and 60s, an experience which has left him a cheerful cynic. He canters briskly and amusingly over the field of spook foul-ups in the post-war period to ‘show the pointlessness of so … Read more
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America Peter Dale Scott London and Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, prices in the UK from £16.95 The first third of this book, 120 pages or so, is part parapolitical and part deep history of America from Nixon to Ronald Reagan’s first election … Read more
Paul Lashmar Sutton Publishing, Stroud (UK), 1996 £12.99 (pb) Beautifully produced, large (trade) format, with many photographs, this is the story of the US and later US-UK spy flights round – and over – the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Alternatively, it is the story of a protracted series of skirmishes between the Soviet … Read more
Larry O’Hara See also: Part 1: British Fascism 1974-92 (Lobster 23) Part 2: British Fascism 1974-92 (II) (Lobster 24) Part 3: British fascism 1983-6 (Lobster 25) The 1986 National Front Split (Lobster 29) A left turn for the NF? Having described some of the multiple policy initiatives undertaken by the National Front in part 3 … Read more
Did Churchill reveal the pending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to Roosevelt two weeks before it happened? Below is what purports to a transcript of a telephone conversation recorded by the Germans during World War 2. If genuine, it shows, as has been alleged in the past, that Roosevelt was indeed warned of the impending … Read more
Compiled by Jane Affleck The US GAO is the investigative arm of the US Congress, and is charged with examining all matters relating to the receipt and disbursement of public funds. It conducts audits, surveys, investigations and evaluations of federal programmes, either at its own initiative or at the request of Congressional Committees or members. … Read more
Dan Hind London: Verso, 2007, h/b, £24.99 Hind’s ‘concern is to examine how ideas from the historical Enlightenment function in contemporary society.’(p. 6) His starting point is the aftermath of 9/11 and the outbreak of loose talk of there being a conflict between radical Islam and ‘the enlightenment’. (12) Some of this came from … Read more
Robert Parry Arlington (VA): The Media Consortium, 2004; $22.95 (US); p/b Order from <www.secrecyandprivilege.com> This is the book I have enjoyed most since the last Lobster and it is one of the best books I have read on American politics and parapolitics. Robert Parry really is very good indeed: he has the serious investigative … Read more
The killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in public view and for no apparent reason remains one of the most notorious murders of recent decades. For sixteen years there have been few signs of any serious attempts to locate and bring to justice the perpetrator of this outrage. Finally, this April, in an outstanding piece of … Read more
