Lobster Issue 34 (Winter 1997) £££
Amnon Reuveni Temple Lodge Publishing, London 1997, £9.95 The author notes in his Introduction that this was ‘written with the aid of Anthroposophy….and seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the post-Cold War world situation.’ The author’s assumptions are listed as: ‘The present is not only to he regarded as the outcome of … Read more
Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007) £££
The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons and the killing of Roberto Calvi Philip Willan London: Robinson, 2007, £7.99, p/b Willan wrote the wonderful The Puppet Masters about post-war Italian politics and this is more of the same, a smaller patch examined in more detail. Never mind the subtitle: yes, he does reexamine the … Read more
Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££
Political activist Daniel Ellsberg and Professor Alfred McCoy have something special in common. Based on their actions and accomplishments of nearly thirty years ago, they have achieved the status of icons within the subculture of what passes for the New Left. Icon Ellsberg became a celebrity in 1971 after he leaked The Pentagon Papers, an … Read more
Lobster Issue 46 (Winter 2003) £££
Drugs, oil and war Peter Dale Scott Oxford (UK) and New York : Rowman and Littlefield Inc; 2003, $22.95, p/b On the left-hand page facing his first page of text Scott gives us two definitions of deep politics, the concept he introduced which succeeded his earlier concept of parapolitics. deep politics: ‘all those political … Read more
Lobster Issue 19 (1990) £££
The final testimony of George Kennedy Young Introduction When this was published we believed that it had been written by a close friend of his. Subsequently we learned that it had been written by Young himself. As far as we were able to judge, it is accurate. But this is by no means the whole … Read more
Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££
The funding of Blair Sometimes chronology implies causality and sometimes not. Consider the following sequence of events: in January 1994 Tony Blair, then Shadow Home Secretary and career-long member of the Labour Friends of Israel, took a four day freebie trip to Israel, with his wife, at the expense of the Israeli government. Two months … Read more
Lobster Issue 3 (1984) £££
Through The Looking Glass: British Foreign Policy In An Age Of Illusions Anthony Verrier (Cape, London 1983) This will probably turn out to be an important book, maybe even a little landmark in the (scanty) literature on British foreign policy since the war. So far it has been largely ignored by the literary/political establishment, receiving … Read more
Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££
(Or: I’m not paranoid, they really are out to get me) Armen Victorian On June 23, this year, after returning home with my children from their school, I noticed a red car parked in front of our house with two passengers, male and female, in it. After we entered, the male passenger, who was very … Read more
Lobster Issue 49 (Summer 2005) £££
When Labour narrowly won the October 1964 election they were greeted by dismal balance of payments figures. An external deficit in the region of £800 million was forecast, twice what had been expected (although the actual figure has since been revised down to £372 million). The government attempted to manage the crisis by a package … Read more
Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££
Why is a Portuguese journalist writing a book about an almost unknown British spy? Recently I had to answer this same question from Igor Prelin, my favourite ex-KGB officer whom I first meet in Cannes, France, during the Television Market Fair of April 1994. After I met Igor Prelin in Cannes, I travelled to Moscow … Read more