Oyster, I don't know if you are old enough to remember that period or whether, perhaps, you have studied the history of that age but you are right to draw attention to the matter of British spies and espionage in general.I suppose it makes a change from pointing at Russia meddling in our affairs.
Just why are we supposed to entirely trust someone who admits (claims?) to have acted as an enemy of the country? Suddenly they are elevated to a position of authority.
And just remember which stratum of society was involved most heavily in...
The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active at least into the early 1950s. Four members of the ring were originally identified: Kim Philby (cryptonym: Stanley), Donald Duart Maclean (cryptonym: Homer), Guy Burgess (cryptonym: Hicks) and Anthony Blunt (cryptonyms: Tony, Johnson). Once jointly known as the Cambridge Four and later as the Cambridge Five, the number increased as more evidence came to light.
Wasn't the good old working class labour-voting stratum.
I have said previously that one cannot escape politics in the UK - it interferes one way or another in every aspect of our daily life and is far more important than simple economics, for example.
Many members of this forum are probably too young to remember the 'outing' of the Cambridge spy ring although they may have heard the names of some of the conspirators. Without researching the many books about that period of British history from pre-WW2 through the post-war period encompassing the cold war, the 'Wikipedia' information on Blunt alone is well worth reading.
Some may have read the Peter Wright novel, 'Spycatcher' which made him an extremely rich man in his twilight years thanks to a deal struck with an Australian publisher. Whether Wright's book satisfied detailed scrutiny, however, is anyone's guess but in the world of secrets, I'd doubt that we, the British public, ever got to hear all of the story in regard to the Cambridge spy ring.
The circles in which people exist in society is a fascinating study and when circles are connected, the inter-connections produce some incredibly interesting relationships. You can be sure that the leading members of the tory party are very closely connected, in some cases related, to the royal family, many of whom were and probably still are, fascists. Another thing you can be sure of is that the ordinary man in the street wasn't part of any major spy ring although certain news media magnates took the part of foreign powers in the 1930s and even today, the media, all of whose owners belong to the same circle as other powerful people in the UK, carry regular stories making wild accusations about reds under the beds within the Labour Party. That message is absorbed by millions, believing that posh tories and the great British monarchy are our protectors while Marxists, socialists and the Labour movement are all undermining British society on behalf of foreign powers - nothing could be further from the truth!
The immense power of the British media has contributed hugely to the tory party's success in elections throughout most of the 20th century. It works because it is a powerful brainwashing tool.
Tom
