'[6] In 1986 the magazine scooped mainstream media by uncovering the secret Clockwork Orange operation, implicated in trying to destabilise the British government.

Colin Wallace,[7][8] a former British Army Intelligence Corps officer in Northern Ireland, described how he had been instructed to smear leading UK politicians.

[10] The current curator of the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection, Hayden B. Peake,[11] notes that the editors of Lobster see it as "member of the international brotherhood of parapolitics mags," the other members being Geheim (Cologne, Germany), Intelligence Newsletter (Paris, France),[12] and Covert Action Information Bulletin (US), and is "distinctive in its depth of coverage, its detailed documentation, and the absence of the rhetoric".

[29] Alternative media expert[30] and Professor of Media and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, Chris Atton,[31] notes that Dorril's Lobster concentrates on the activities of the British and US security services, while Robin Ramsay's Lobster casts its net wider to encompass histories of fascism, the JFK assassination, the Lockerbie bombing and the military's medical experiments on service personnel.

"[24] Lobster published the first account of the Colin Wallace affair,[33][34] also known as Operation Clockwork Orange, about the plot by disaffected members of Britain's Security Service, MI5, to destabilise the Harold Wilson Labour Government,[35] and to smear politicians such as former Tory prime minister Edward Heath.

Two weeks later, Labour MP Tam Dalyell asked the Prime Minister why she would not refer the matter to the Security Commission, but she said that she had nothing more to add.

'No inside knowledge or breach of official secrets was needed'"[14] 10 years later, Ramsay was quoted in the Hull Daily Mail, that "At the time it was a way of sticking two fingers up at the Government".

[15] 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: 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.

[65] In 2001, the magazine Red Pepper wrote that Lobster ".. succeeds on the quality of its writing... articles are well researched... human, passionate and honest...",[66] the Fortean Times (who also syndicated a regular Lobster column by Ramsay) wrote that it was "... immensely engrossing reading, ...an essential purchase for anyone interested in the machinations of the secret state",[67] Green Anarchist magazine wrote that Lobster is "... an invaluable resource, and deserves to be widely read and much studied",[68] and Direct Action magazine described it as "a good read ... very revealing and worth it, just for the pub talk".

[69] Journalist Robert McCrum in The Guardian describes Lobster as ".. a left-wing journal that offers succour to conspiracy theorists [..] a brave, bright beacon, a Quixotic piece of typically English amateurism that keeps the professionals on their toes".

[17] The Independent newspaper has described it as a "delightful and worthwhile publications, more footnote than story, that [..] delivers a comprehensive picture of a clandestine world which the Establishment would prefer remained secret".

[15] Irish historical writer, Tim Pat Coogan, in discussing a TV programme about Captain Fred Holroyd in relation to the Collin Wallace affair, noted that "some of the best writing on the Holroyd case is contained in smaller journals published contemporaneously, notably Lobster, Private Eye, and, in particular [Duncan] Campbell's own series [..] in the Statesman".

[71] Professor of Media and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, Chris Atton, notes that a reference at the end of an article in Lobster led to the founding of the activist librarians' group Information for Social Change.