Try as I might, I cannot get excited by the Prince Andrew spying story. After all, if China really wanted hot gossip on the inner workings of the UK, was Prince Andrew really the best conduit to get it? I doubt it, very much.
More than that, I smell a rat. If you wanted to shove an embarrassing relative into the long grass for good wouldn't an alleged spy scandal seem like manna from heaven compared to the other options currently available? I have my suspicions.
But what really annoys me about this story are three things.
The first is its mindless escalation.
The second is the implicit pretence that we don't spy, when glaringly obviously we do, and have massive departments (MI6, GCHQ, etc) set up to do just that.
And third, is the also implicit denial that the state might spy on us, because of course it does.
The Guardian has a story today on spying by the Metropolitan Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland on two journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. That this happened has now been confirmed by a Tribunal hearing. The Tribunal found that the spying was sanctioned at the highest level in the PSNI. The aim was to discover the journalists' sources. The reason was they were investigating police corruption.
That, to me, is spying that does matter. This was spying to prevent the proper operation of the law.
It was spying to prevent journalists undertaking the proper role that they have as the fourth estate in a democracy, of holding those with power to account.
It was an anti-democratic act. And it was done, here in the UK, against people here in the UK.
That is spying to worry about.
And I do worry about such things. In my own way I am part of that fourth estate. I would also be surprised if the UK's security services have ignored me over the last twenty years. When I have negotiated on international issues at the OECD and worked on occasion with the likes of the IMF and World Bank, and all from, in effect, my spare bedroom, it would be weird if they had not noticed. But, finding out is one thing. Oppressing journalists is another, and that was happening in the case I note.
There will be more of this. It is now apparent that Trump really will be going for the media now. It will happen here as a result. That's the spying, and its consequences, that we need to worry about.
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Many years ago, before the Internet a ‘Protest Group’ had a balloon.
They realised that they were being watched, delayed mail, clicks on the phone etc etc.
So they hatched a plan to drop a parachutist – which you are not allowed to do from a balloon over an ‘important target’ In fact they never intended to do this it was just to see what the response was.
letters were exchanged phone calls made etc
Next thing they knew they had the CAA – Civil Aviation Authority in the phone telling them that dropping a parachutist from a balloon was illegal and a rather funny conversation ensued about it along the lines of You should not do this you know, yes we know etc etc
So now they knew they were being watched
Same occurred when my then-wife in the early 80s was planning a demo at Chilwell Ordnance Depot in Nottingham when the rumour was that cruise missiles were to be stored there. At one point our house phone was directly patched in to the base (operator error) so I had fun ordering bacon butties to be delivered at home – the order was actually taken. Within the hour a security detail was parked outside, and left when the connection was removed. My eldest son had to have security clearance in the 2010s to be in Cameron’s bodyguard – he gave detailed instructions about all the conduits I should avoid political comment on during that period – including WhatsApp, which has a GCHQ/NSA ‘back door’. He advised I used the Swiss-based ‘proton’ as an email, as that hadn’t, at the time.
The trouble with ‘kite flying’ in the manner described re the balloon/parachutist proposal, nowadays, is that some action would be discussed by way of a provocation, but online by zoom or whatever… and the proposers wouldn’t then get a warning call, they’d get a loud knock on the door (or wake to the sound of it being smashed in?) and then be arrested for conspiracy. They’d need good lawyers to avoid custody, I fear.
Spying , for the ordinary citizen can be a criminal offence, through at least four Statutes: the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Human Rights Act 1998.
What is more important than the fact that the journalists were treated this way (is anyone really surprised?); but that nobody will be held to account under the law.
I laughed out loud as I read the names of those 4 pieces of legislation. I have suffered from multiple breaches of all 4, but the relevant enforcement bodies repeatedly looked the other way. I still have copies of key logging software sent to me from Singapore, where a certain CEO lived, and web access logs detailing visits to charity & church websites I used to run, from police & MOD. All for campaigning against BT’s illegal activities in the noughties, in partnership with an international purveyor of unlawful surveillance (with a UK private education of course). Just look up “Phorm” in Wikipedia or even Wikileaks. 7 countries, several national telcos, serious national security implications, Home Office complicity, police “incompetence” (or worse), company eventually bankrupted, no one prosecuted.
Weak, dishonest, small, fearful people with far too much power. There are 2 things they hate, being made fun of, or being ignored. They especially hate it if you aren’t afraid of them, even though they can do you damage.
Ultimately, they LOSE.
Those bits of legislation are fig leaves.
Thank you, Richard.
I’m glad you have brought this up as this story has felt dodgy from beginning.
In no particular order:
# Reference to being a Chinese Communist Party, not Chinese government / intelligence, spy. I know there’s an overlap in China.
# Why was the spy’s identity withheld as national security reasons can override such injunctions?
# Trump’s invitation to Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration has upset the neocons, including one of their attack dogs, Ian Duncan Smith.
# Murdoch’s involvement. Neo con and no fan of Britain. At Oxford, Murdoch was treated as an uppity colonial. In return, he kept a bust of Lenin in his digs.
# Andrew is worse in real life than his depiction in the coverage. See dispatches from a former US envoy in central Asia and a former UK official.
# Richard’s first paragraph.
# Some, but not all, new money want to be photographed with a British royal as a sign of having arrived. Andrew and his family, Prince and Princess Michael are the usual vehicles.
# Studious ignorance of why Mandelson appointed Andrew as trade envoy and introduced him to Epstein and why. See Whitney Webb.
“At Oxford, Murdoch was treated as an uppity colonial. In return, he kept a bust of Lenin in his digs.”
I’m sure he was, but his dad, Keith (as a journo in 1915/6) had all the dirt on what happened in Gallipoli & the Uk establishment owed him – cos he helped gloss over realities (& thus later Rupe – who doubltess was well briefed by dad). oh and those not familiar with Rupe’s qualification… PPE – natch.
Thank you, Mike. Very true.
Murdoch and Jerry Hall spent covid in splendid isolation at their Henley on Thames hideaway and got their first jabs before Her Majesty. Mmm.
the Matt cartoon in the Telegraph today is pertinent.
I am sure they will be taking note of you Richard.
For what its worth decades ago I was a trade union branch chair person and on the regional committee (got the impression the communist party was a not very well hidden influence at the time) .
Also worked in a government sponsored quango – with several research projects and events here and in collaboration with researchers in Eastern Europe . It seemed we were being kept an eye on – .especially when we were over there.
As with others above -I also had clicks on the phone- and indeed a crossed line to Vanessa Redgrave who was very politically active at the time – may have been a coincidence????
No surprise that the Andrew spy story or indeed the Barry Gardener China spy story – has not led to any discussions in MSM on who is spying on who
The police seem to be engaged in all kinds of illegitimate activities – from undercover agents deceiving innocent women into sexual relationships, to obviously over-zealous policing of protests – while detection and conviction rates for real crime, such as rape or burglary, hover at almost unbelievably low rates – literally 1-2%. Nor do they seem able, for literally decades in the case of the Met, to be able to deal effectively with ongoing sexism and racism in their own ranks.