Re: The queer will be dethroned (taken from 'Smear! : Wilson and the Secret State'

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08/09/01 08:28 -0700, Michael Pugliese wrote:


> http://www.merepseud.mcmail.com/Queer.htm


An interesting clip, but Michael gave no introduction.

Despite the title, I do not think this has anything to say about the
contradictory role of homophobia or homosexuality in the journey of the
British Conservative Party from the main party of the bourgeoisie to an
eccentric and marginal force. For example Harvey Proctor was a close ally
of George Kennedy Young, according to this account, and this is not
commented on at all.

What Dorril does extremely well is to chart the detailed conspiratorial
threads of Conservative micro-politics. It is not clear from this extract
alone, whether he draws the bigger picture, about how the party gained lost
the opportunity of setting the main agenda of a state that has, like all
states, to appear to stand above classes and conflicts. Heath's importance
was not in his sexuality but because he was the last champion of "One
Nation" Conservatism, which drew heavily on Disraeli's willingness to make
pragmatic popular reforms.

The latest stage of the Conservative's struggle for leadership and identity
will be announced on Wednesday, when they will probably again back a
marginal right wing figure rather than a national unifier. Although
Thatcher's abrasive politics were useful when Britain had to lose a large
part of the social wage, to become internationally competitive again, it is
a diversion for a modern bourgeois party to depart too far from the centre
ground.

A further Google search comes to this critical review of a more recent book
by Stephen Dorril, which gives a number of reasons why readers of this list
might find his work attractive.

> MI6 : Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service
>
> Well written and subtle propaganda., September 3, 2001 Reviewer: justin
> from NY: I read Stephen Dorril's account with some dismay. Far from a
> balanced treatment of MI6's impact on the Cold War, Dorril drops one
> suggestion after another pointing at the West as instigator of the Cold
> War. Amazingly, Dorrill treats the presence of Philby, McClean and other
> Soviet spies in MI6 as normal, as if a diversity of views should take
> precendence over the destructive effect Philby had on MI6/CIA activity and
> morale. This book portrays the Soviets as "victims" of Western treachery
> or buffoonery, a thesis that is itself a nice work of propaganda.
> Nevertheless, Dorril presents events that are factual, albeit framed to
> suit his goal of painting MI6 as a prime cause of the Cold War. Dorril
> frequently omits relevant information about similar or related Soviet
> activity, and selectively quotes protagonists to place them in the worst
> possible light. He has little to say about Soviet concentration camp
> atrocities (which spanned two decades) or Russian political intimidation
> and murder in Eastern Europe after the Second World War -- facts that
> inconveniently undermine his thesis.


Other reviews have been very compimentary about the mass of detail in this
work by Dorril. The work quoted above by Michael appears to be out of print.



Chris Burford

London