Lessons from history

Len McCluskey might be many things, but paranoid isn’t one of them.  His comments to The Guardian about possible infiltration of the Labour Party by agents of the intelligence services are firmly rooted in historic fact.


The response of former (Labour) Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, dismissing the suggestion as a “downright insult” demonstrates how little she knew about what was going on when she was supposedly in charge.

For readers worried that Jacqui might be struggling to make ends meet after the ungrateful voters of Redditch booted her out of Parliament in 2010, I’m happy to report that she has now found gainful employment in Egypt and Jordan.

I drew attention to the official, authorised history of MI5 in this blog back in 2009.  The book, Defence of the Realm, actually boasts about how MI5 spied on the then democratically-elected Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

There are also countless records of how the spooks involved themselves in assorted industrial disputes, notably the 1980s miners’ strike.

No-one should rubbish what Len McCluskey is saying until they have researched the recent history.  The idea that the intelligence agencies might be responsible for various attempts at de-stablising Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party would be very far from the most outlandish stunt they have ever tried.