[…] in Brent, East, there was an unusual public meeting. An individual was invited to it who has never been a Socialist, who will never be prepared to vote Labour and who thinks that the Tory party is the natural governing party of Britain. He was invited to share a platform with myself and some […]
Introduction I write this as a member of ‘old Labour’, and like others of that ilk, I am looking for a way out of the present farce-cum-nightmare of a Labour Party lead by a tiny group of not very bright Thatcherites.(1) To understand where we are now, we have to go back to the 1970s. … Read more
The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America 1947-2000 Sally Denton and Roger Morris London: Pimlico, 2002, pb, £15 John Burnes It’s hardly news that Las Vegas was a city run by the Mob. Or that it was fuelled by financial corruption. Or that both of these … Read more
[…] the East End of London, the fact remains, as Dorril points out, that the BUF could not elect a single councillor, let alone an MP. Its highest vote was in Bethnal Green in March 1937 when a BUF council candidate got 23% of the vote. From this point of view, the role of anti-Semitism […]
The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt Richard Webster Oxford: The Orwell Press, 2005, £25 This is an account of the various child abuse and satanic abuse cases that developed across the UK from the mid ’80s onwards. At the phenomenon’s peak, around 1995, many police forces were carrying … Read more
[…] paints is of a disturbed child, completely out of control. His rebellion at preparatory school and later at Harrow public school. In 1950 he painted the slogan VOTE LABOUR on a number of college walls (this did not indicate any youthful leftism, just that he thought this would cause more offense than anything else […]
PART 1 See also Part 2 in Lobster 6 Most Western political scientists, following in the traditions of Marx or Weber, scorn the study of secret and occult societies as irrelevant to understanding the politics of the age. In their view, politics can best be understood as the working out, in public arenas, of bureaucratic, … Read more
[…] politics by never having any serious rivals on the right. Contrast the Liberal and Labour parties and at times, the SDP and Nationalists, who split the centre-left vote between them. But there was always a risk of some ‘flaking away’ of support on the right of the party, especially on the issues of immigration […]
Many thanks, as always, to Terry Hanstock for contributions. Comments and contributions welcome. My email is ‘War on Terrorism’: Repercussions of 11 Sept. 2001 The Sept 11 2001 attacks on the US and subsequent ‘war against terrorism’ have provided law enforcement/intelligence agencies with an opportunity to push for sweeping new powers, plus fast-tracking of … Read more
[…] it that small town, suburban and rural Muslims can be integrated into the community through sensitive policing whereas the radicalisation of urban Muslims is undercutting the Labour vote in the big cities and ‘something must be done’? I am beyond my competency in second-guessing either the politicians or the security services but there has […]