The Green Ribbon

Coup! 9pm BBC2

Just a quick reminder for those of you not watching Italy V Ukraine tonight, that BBC2's satirical take on the 'Wonga coup' is on at 9pm.

I'm in the middle or reading Andrew Roberts book on the subject at the moment, which has some interesting revelations about the origins of Frederick Forsyth's book The Dogs of War.

British Imperialism and English patriotism

Writer Mike Marqusee is unusual for an American in being a cricket buff. Despite his affinity for the quintessentially English game, he's suspicious of the resurgence of English identity visible at recent sporting events.

Marqusee makes his arguments at Comment is Free and in a debate with Mark Perryman on his site. Perhaps his most significant point is this one.

Recasting English national identity as forward-looking, inclusive, free of chauvinist aggression is a more complicated business than merely "reclaiming" the St George's flag from the far right (which is not in the least depressed to see its favoured emblem so widely adopted). The reclaimers want to skip over a vital step in the process: a realistic examination of British imperial history and its current role in the world. In a climate shaped by paranoia about immigration, demands that minorities "integrate", the war on terror and the presence of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an uncritical, ahistorical celebration of England remains, at the least, problematic. (CommentIsFree)

PC Spooks: Index to posts

PC Spooks?

PC Spooks? II: The Godsons, the IRD and Fr Denis Faul.

PC Spooks? III: Information Policy on Fr Denis Faul.

PC Spooks? IV: The IRD in Northern Ireland

PC Spooks? V: Northern Ireland as a casebook for the War on Terror

PC Spooks? V: Northern Ireland as a casebook for the war on terror

So what is the point if this series of posts?

Well to sum up, Dean Godson, son of Cold War warrior Joe Godson, has been doing something very similar to what Clifford Hill of the IRD advised in 1971, using the British experience in Northern Ireland as a 'casebook' for other situations, in this case the War on Terror.

In particular, he has used the Northern Ireland example to argue three things:

1. Defeatist officials advocating negotations with terrorists are a threat to the policies of elected politicians.

2. That Western states should be wary of engaging with supposed moderates in insurgent communities.

3. That cold war outfits such as the Information Research Department are a model for prosecuting the idealogical battle in the War on Terror.

In reality, a look at the historical record on Northern Ireland turns these propositions on their head.

PC Spooks? IV: The IRD in Northern Ireland

Several other interesting documents turned up in the 1971 file along with Information Policy and the Northern Ireland Situation.

Two of them concerned a man a man called Clifford Hill, who was briefly mentioned in Paul Foot's book on Colin Wallace:

Immediately after internment, the IRA started to get the upper hand. And from that time on, the Foreign Office and the Intelligence people insisted on much more say in public relations. They sent a man over called Hugh Mooney - he was from a department of the Foreign Office called the Information Research Department (IRD). None of us ever knew what Mooney was about. Who he reported to or what he was entitled to. All we knew was that they gave him a big house to live in and freedom to move at will throughout the barracks and Stormont. There was another man called Clifford Hill - I always imagined that he had something to do with Intelligence. None of us knew precisely what he was up to either. (Tony Staughton interview by Paul Foot, Who Framed Colin Wallace?)

PC Spooks? III: Information Policy on Fr Denis Faul

In my previous post, I mentioned that the late Fr Denis Faul's name had turned up in an Army Information Policy document from 1971.

I have uploaded a PDF version of the file, which is entitled Public Opinion and the Northern Ireland Situation, a note by the Colonel GS (Information Policy) HQ Northern Ireland.

The relevant extract reads as follows:

PC Spooks? II: The Godsons, the IRD and Fr Denis Faul

My post on Dean Godson's critique of 'PC spooks' yesterday was inspired by a Slugger thread on this Times piece about the late Fr Denis Faul, in which Godson makes the presumably unverifiable statement that Faul told him five years ago that Martin McGuinness was a British agent.

I have since been reading a bit more of Godson's stuff for The Times. Something clicked when I came across this:

During the Cold War, organisations such as the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office would assert the superiority of the West over its totalitarian rivals. And magazines such as Encounter did hand-to-hand combat with Soviet fellow travellers. For any kind of truly moderate Islam to flourish, we need first to recapture our own self-confidence. At the moment, the extremists largely have the field to themselves. (The Times, 5 April)

PC spooks?

One of today's threads on Slugger highlights an interesting debate in the pages of Prospect magazine between David Trimble's biographer Dean Godson and Alistair Crooke, a former senior MI6 officer who advocates dialogue with Hamas.

Crooke writes:

Western policies are in difficulties throughout the middle east. The west responds to this situation by largely refusing to talk with the fastest growing current in the middle east, the Islamists. But the EU should heed the words of Efraim Halevy, former adviser to Ariel Sharon and a former Mossad head. He recently criticised Israel for insisting that Hamas first recognise the Jewish state as a precondition for any discussion. Halevy argued rather that Israel should recognise Hamas first. He predicted that in so doing, "we will be seeing things we have not seen before"--an apparent allusion to talks between Israel and Hamas. That would be a good start. (Talking to Hamas, via Policy Exchange)

Von Paleske on the Wonga Coup

South Africa's Indymedia carries a new piece by Dr Alexander Von Paleske on Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann and 'the Wonga Coup', which is the subject of a new book out this month, and a satirical drama on BBC 2 this Friday (June 30).

Mrs Thatcher is played in Coup! by Caroline Blakiston. Something of a change from her best-known role, if you ask me.

DUP seek corporation tax cut

The DUP renewed its call for a cut in Corporation Tax during Gordon Brown's visit to Stormont last week.

While I agree that Northern Ireland needs to emulate the Celtic Tiger, I do wonder whether they have thought through the implications of this move.

The point that I made about the Ulster Unionist's similar call in April still stands:

Lower corporation tax in Northern Ireland or Scotland will be politically untenable in England, unless it goes along with cuts to Westminster's subvention to public spending in both countries. That would add up to a major weakening of the union.

The suggestion that lower corporation tax is desirable is therefore a very significant admission for a unionist party to make.