Espionage
Their Man In London
What do we really want from our security services?
Washington Blame Game
Was the journalist Judith Miller’s bad intelligence to blame for the 2003 invasion of Iraq?
Wired But Not Secured
The uses and abuses of technology
Donnish Spy Games
A valuable – though not objective – historical record
Overrated: Edward Snowden
Anyone who has seen The Bourne Identity, or the many similar Hollywood films, finds the Edward Snowden saga familiar. A heroic fugitive insider is hunted by a rogue government agency. As the credits roll, our man on the run is vindicated, thanks to a combination of media coverage and belated congressional scrutiny. He gets the girl. The villains go to jail.
Snoop Log
Listening in on a conversation about listening in
Data Oversharing
‘Whenever I buy something over the phone I am giving a total stranger the means to clean out my current account’
Blunt Contempt
Many a British art worthy maintains we all could have been Anthony Blunt. Rubbish: he deserved nothing less than exile in Russia
What Daddy Did in the War
Papa Spy by Jimmy Burns
Swallowing the Party Line
The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal