Immensely rewarding long piece at Spinwatch on Glen Jenvey and the network he was part of. Really creepy, low rent stuff. Quite extensive penetration of the Tories, and the usual suspects crop up: Civitas, the Centre for Social Cohesion, various luminaries of the Hutu Right in America.
Looking back, the official right in Britain never played a huge public role in the general Iraq-WoT debate in the early and mid years of the decade. It tended to get crowded out by the noise from liberal/left arguments. Arguably this period saw the high tide of Blairism’s attempt to embody the official establishment and generally hegemonise itself. But things were obviously going on within the Tories and their outliers while they were festering on the sidelines.
There’s far more to the article than that. It’s a very Graham-Greenish bit of muckraking, with a bit of Highsmith’s Ripley in there. Pond Scum for Western Civilisation. Check it out. Via.
Incidentally, Spinwatch have done a great job putting everything together, but the entire credit for breaking this story really goes to Tim Ireland. And this is one of those stories where you don’t just hit the target, you get the range.
My favourite twist is Jenvey's conversion to Islam.
Posted by: Alex | August 28, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Massive props go out to Tim Ireland for this. He's a great exponent of the principles of proper investigative journalism: never, ever give up, and always pay attention to detail.
Posted by: Chris Williams | August 28, 2009 at 11:29 AM
"My favourite twist is Jenvey's conversion to Islam"
Bizarre but somehow predictable as well. I mean, why not? It's not as if he has any beliefs or anything other than in himself as master spy and man of destiny. he can always convert back and claim he was infiltrating.
Hey, betcha he's got those carpet burns for Allah on his forehead by now.
Posted by: jamie | August 28, 2009 at 12:28 PM
It's telling that he and Paul Staines were both freeloading off opposite sides of the apartheid struggle at the same time.
(Sudden inspiration - whatever happened to that "BritainAndAmerica" thing Stephan Shakespeare started?)
Posted by: Alex | August 28, 2009 at 02:56 PM
Talking of Tim Ireland, is Bloggerheads out of service at the mo?
Posted by: ejh | August 29, 2009 at 05:44 AM