page_title: Lobster (magazine)
section_title: House of Commons criticism
hierarchical_section_title: Lobster (magazine) / Controversy / Who's Who of the British Secret State / House of Commons criticism
caption_attribution_description: English: Big Ben HDR Español: Big Ben HDR
context_page_description: Lobster is a magazine that is interested primarily in the influence of intelligence and security services on politics and world trade, what it calls "deep politics" or "parapolitics". It combines the examination of conspiracy theories and contemporary history. Lobster is edited and published in the United Kingdom and has appeared twice a year for 36 years, at first in 16-page A5 format, then as an A4 magazine. Operating on a shoestring, its contributors include academics and others. Since 2009 it is distributed as a free downloadable PDF document.
  According to the Hull Daily Mail, Lobster 'investigates government conspiracies, state espionage and the secret service.' In 1986 the magazine scooped mainstream media by uncovering the secret Clockwork Orange operation, implicated in trying to destabilise the British government. Colin Wallace, a former British Army Intelligence Corps officer in Northern Ireland, described how he had been instructed to smear leading UK politicians. Questions were asked in the House of Commons and an extended scandal ensued.
  The current curator of the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection, Hayden B.
context_section_description: Subsequently, Lobster was denounced in the British Parliament. Then Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Wycombe, Ray Whitney, criticised the publication of the names in the House of Commons on 21 December 1988 in a debate on a proposed Official Secrets Bill, when he commented that:
  "A small obscure magazine published, I think, in Hull and called, would hon. Members believe, Lobster makes a practice of publishing names of gentlemen who are alleged to be members of the security services. That creates danger and I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup shares my deep apprehension about that sort of practice being allowed to continue."
  In his book, Politics and Paranoia, Ramsay criticised Whitney's role as the head of the Foreign Office's Information Research Department which Ramsay described as the "State's official, anti-left psy-war outfit", and had omitted to tell the Commons before denouncing him.
caption: Lobster was denounced in the House of Commons
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