Talk:Peter Blaker

In March 1987, Minister of Defence Michael Heseltine set up a special counter-propaganda unit called Defence Secretariat 19 (DS19) to write anti-CND material. DS19 liaised with MI5, who illegally tapped the phone of CND vice-president John Cox and other members of the organisation.

MI5 officer Cathy Massiter was instructed to carry out the phone-tapping operation by Tony Crasweller, who also supervised the agency's F4 and F6 sections, which ran agents inside political parties and organisations. At the same time, CND member Stanley Bonnett, a former editor of the CND magazine Sanity, was recruited as an informant by Special Branch, on the instructions of MI5. Bonnett gave the intelligence services minutes of meetings and lists of CND activists throughout the country - lists which the officers told him "would be used for political purposes."

Cathy Massiter gathered material on any left-wing affiliations of CND's leaders. A report was then passed to civil servant John Ledlie, who was seconded to DS19, and he passed it on to Michael Heseltine and Sir Peter Blaker MP, Heseltine's lieutenant in the propaganda campaign. Blaker, in turn, passed the information on to the local Conservative Association of Ray Whitney, former head of the Information Research Department.

As the general election campaign was getting under way, the Blaker/Whitney letter was circulated to prospective Tory candidates. The Daily Mail ran an article entitled CND Is Branded a Tool of the Kremlin, which drew from MI5 smears of the organisation and included allegations attributed to Stanley Bennett. In the same period, the private anti-Communist propaganda group Common Cause, which monitors subversion in industry and the unions, published a pamphlet, The Communist Influence on CND, which had been written under the direction of Charles Elwell, head of MI5's F Branch. Elwell was also responsible for targeting the National Council of Civil Liberties (NCCL) as a subversive group. http://www.bilderberg.org/bap.htm

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http://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/independence.html

Maurice bishop affair new jewel party 9didn't MB go missing was'nt there a destabilising op against New jewel? Blaker rep of HMG

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THCR 2/6/1/82 Defence briefings and other papers, June-ca. December 1977 (1 folder) Includes MT's correspondence with Peter Blaker MP (enclosing a record of his meeting with Alan Reich, Assistant First Secretary US Department of Commerce, 28 July 1977), Winston Churchill MP (attaching a copy of his paper, “Britain's nuclear deterrence”, ca. June 1977) and Patrick Cosgrave (Special Adviser to MT), attaching a copy of a paper on “U.S. overseas bases: problems of projecting U.S. military power abroad” by Thomas Moorer and Alvin Cottrell), ca. 1977 Also includes detailed briefing notes by the Conservative Research Department for MT's visit to the USA, September 1977

THCR 2/6/1/213 Papers relating to the crisis in Rhodesia, March 1976-December 1978 (1 folder) Includes correspondence with Peter Blaker MP, Eldon Griffiths MP (including notes of his interviews with Prime Minister (Ian) Smith of Rhodesia, Prime Minister (John) Vorster of South Africa, President (Kenneth) Kaunda of Zambia and Joshua Nkomo, all March 1976), Reginald Maudling MP, Sir Victor Raikes, Christopher Tugendhat, Patrick Wall MP and Michael Young (Consolidated Goldfields)

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Rt. Hon. Lord Peter Allan Renshaw Blaker KCMG Served in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders from 1942-46 as a captain, on leaving the army he became a solicitor and was then admitted to the Foreign Service in 1953 stationed at the embassy in Phnom Penh (1955-57) and at the UK High Commission in Ottawa 1957-60. At the Foreign Office from 1960-62 he was Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Foreign affairs from 1962-64.

He attended a disarmament Conference in Geneva as part of the UN General Assembly in 1962 and 63 (shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis) which led to the signing of the test ban treaty in Moscow in 1963. He became an MP representing Blackpool south from 1964-92, an opposition whip (1967-67) and PPS to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1970-72), moving to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Army) at the MOD from 1972-74 and a minister of state at the FCO 1979-81 and for the Armed Forces 1981-83.

He was a member of the executive committee of the British-American Parly group 1975-79 and chairman of the board of the Royal Ordinance factories 1972-74, a member of the Council of Chatham House 1977-79; the Council for Arms Control 1983-; a member of the Freedom Association; Vice Chairman of Peace through NATO; vice-president of the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council 1983-; a member of the council of the GB USSR association 1974-92; a Governor of the Atlantic Institute 1978-79; Chairman McLean Hunter Cablevision Ltd 1989-; Integrated Asset Management; Central Lancashire Television; World Trading & Shipping Ltd. Recently he has joined Constantia

In 1991 with Lord Chalfont and right-wing MP Julian Lewis he launched a campaign against ‘Generals for Peace and Disarmament’ led by the Gulf War veteran Brigadier Michael Harbottle stating:

""We have convincing evidence that it is intimately linked with the World Peace Council and other organs of the Soviet propaganda machine." Blaker is also a member of the committee of The European Atlantic Group and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Conflict Issues which is sponsored by UnLtd. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues was launched on Tuesday 6th February 2007 when Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former Special Representative in Iraq, addressed the group and answered questions on 'The Changing Nature of Conflict'. Greenstock whose book on the Iraq war was blocked by the Foreign Office, was joined on the platform by London School of Economics Professor Mary Kaldor, author of New and Old Wars. Other APPGCI meetings include 'The Power of Mediation', March 2007 where the speakers were Lord Hurd of Westwell (former Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary) and Professor Karl Mackie of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution; 'Dogs of War or a Force for Peace?' May 2007 which examined the controversial and unregulated role of private military and security companies in modern conflict, the speakers were: Andy Bearpark, Director General, British Association of Private Security Companies and John Hilary, Campaigns and Policy Director, War on Want;November 2007 'Strategic Trends 2007-2036' with Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD's think tank, the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre

The All-party Group's website states "The Secretariat for the group is provided by ministry for peace." The Ministry for Peace has described its origins:

"The idea originated with Diana Basterfield, a member of the public, who then sought support for it within Parliament. John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, agreed to be the parliamentary spokesperson. They are the joint Co-Founders. We were aware of the initiative by Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic contender for the US Presidency in 2004, to set up a Cabinet level Department of Peace in the United States. We also knew that Marianne Williamson, author, lecturer and co-founder of the Global Renaissance Alliance, was working closely with Dennis Kucinich to get support for his Bill."

This led to a conference "Peace builder or warmonger? Britain's role in the 21st Century" at Friends House, Euston Road, London 3rd April 2004, that included John Randall, MP - Co-sponsor of the The Ministry for Peace Bill, Scilla Elworthy, Executive Director, Peace Direct, Paul Ingram a Senior Analyst with the British American Security Council, Tony Juniper an Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote.

Writing

He has written 'Coping with the Soviet Union' and 'Small Is Dangerous' (1985) was subtitled 'Micro States in a Macro World' and organised by Sheila Harden, this emerged from a study group appointed by the David Davies memorial Institute with texts adopted by consensus of a group consisting of Blaker as chairman, Donald Anderson, Hugh Hannig, Rosalyn Higgens, David jessop, Patrick Keatley, Peter Lyon, Lord mayhew, MAlcolm Shaw, Jack spence and donald cameron Watt. Among the areas covered were the Falklands isles and Grenada.