Category Archives: History

Winston Churchill’s Political Apprenticeship

As a Cabinet Minister he had three outstanding qualities: he worked hard, he carried his proposals through Cabinet and Parliament, and he carried his department with him.1 Winston Churchill was Britain’s greatest prime minister. He was a mature politician when … Continue reading

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Nazi SS Doctors and the CIA: post 1945

“They [CIA doctors] did, however, benefit from the guidance of Camp King’s staff doctor, Walter Schreiber, the former surgeon general of the Nazi army, who had overseen research at concentration camps in which prisoners were frozen, injected with hallucinogens, and … Continue reading

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President Kennedy’s Favourite Nazi

The Allies had an amoral attitude towards Nazi scientists. They were an intellectual elite and were helped to leave Germany thereby by-passing the Nuremburg Trials. Many would have been convicted and, some, would have been sentenced to death. They had … Continue reading

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Yitzhak Rabin: Nobel Lecture 1994

At an age when most youngsters are struggling to unravel the secrets of mathematics and the mysteries of the Bible; at an age when first love blooms; at the tender age of sixteen, I was handed a rifle so that … Continue reading

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The Gaza Strip and Israel, 2014

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a “prison camp”.1 Israel controls Gaza’s territorial waters and maintains exclusive control in the air space…[It] controls the entire ….border including the Erez … Continue reading

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Israel’s Disastrous ‘Six Day War’ 1967

Background Pre-1948 Jewish immigration into Palestine provoked inter-communal violence. Britain, the colonial power, resisted calls for mass immigration. They ignored the Holocaust. Britain was focused entirely on maintaining peace in the territory. Jewish terrorists created an impossible situation and Britain … Continue reading

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The Desecration of Oliver Cromwell’s Corpse, 1661

This day (Oh, the stupendous and inscrutable judgments of God!) were the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshawe (the judge who condemned his Majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the Usurper), dragged out of their superb tombs in Westminster among the … Continue reading

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Why didn’t Oliver Cromwell Order the Assassination of Charles the First?

Political assassination is the murder of a significant figure by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends.1 There were two English civil wars as well as Scottish and Irish rebellions in the 1640s. The second civil war, 1646-8, left … Continue reading

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George Orwell on Socialists in 1937

The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years’ time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage … Continue reading

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Hitler, Chamberlain and Clausewitz

Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement failed in 1939 and was replaced with something worse. He decided Britain was a lion. Chamberlain threatened Hitler with war if Germany attacked Poland. The German High Command knew Britain couldn’t defend Poland and Hitler believed … Continue reading

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