It isn’t easy evading the authorities but it may be easier if you are one.
This is a story of one of the former heads of MI5.
His loss of control over his department led to a critical demise in parts of the UK’s operational capacity.
It also led to such a period of anarchic chaos that competing powers in the UK sought to take over the protection of our shores.
However, the real answer to our issues at the highest level lies with this sole man.
It takes a lot of people to run a coherent intelligence service but at times it requires even more.
It demands an ethical inquiry into a situation because at the heart of it are mostly human problems.
If suffering doesn’t prove to you that it’s an emergency, what’s the point of avoiding it at all?
This man misjudged a critical warning, buried it, and left it.
It led to a failure of huge proportions. It meant our sacrosanct shores were breached for the first time since before the Wars.
The mystery man thought he could avoid criticism and also inculcated a culture of fear and paranoia.
It added to a situation where staff had other concerns and it meant his actions were disastrous.
In the end matters were restored, step by step. He was located and informed his role in the intelligence services was over.
