Shaken, Not Stirred?

A Russian "spy" in the office of some backbench Lib Dem? "Spying" on what, exactly? And what if she were? What threat is Russia to British jobs? Into what war does Russia wish to drag us? By contrast, David Leigh writes:

"Conservative party politicians lined up before the general election to promise that they would run a "pro-American regime" and buy more arms from the US if they came to power this year, the leaked American embassy cables show.

Liam Fox, now the defence secretary, promised to buy American military equipment, while the current foreign secretary, William Hague, offered the ambassador a "pro-American" government. Hague also said the entire Conservative leadership were, like him, "staunchly Atlanticist" and "children of Thatcher".

The frontbencher admitted that there was an opposed faction within Tory ranks. "Fox asserted that some within the Conservative party are less enthusiastic, asserting that 'we're supposed to be partners with, not supplicants to, the United States".

Despite British leaders' supportive stance, the dispatches also reveal – in what some will see as humiliating detail – how US diplomats in London are amused by what they call Britain's "paranoid" fears about the so-called special relationship."

Meanwhile, Luke Coffey is an American citizen, a former captain in his country's Army, and the founder of the London branch of Censa (Council for Emerging National Security Affairs), a think tank the true character of which may be discerned from the list of members: Matthew Thompson, a former CIA analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence; Jeff Benson, who worked in the US Office of Naval Intelligence; Sean Bielat, who serves in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as an intelligence watch officer; and Paul Crespo, who served as a defence and naval attaché at American embassies in the Balkans, the Gulf and Latin America.

Luke Coffey is also a Special Adviser to Liam Fox. He has not been given full security clearance, and I am reliably informed that he will not be. However, he has a pass giving him access to all areas of the MoD, and he works in an open plan office where he has ready access to any file he wants. Fox is known to favour buying cheap, off the shelf equipment from America, an approach which would destroy thousands of British jobs and put our defence capability wholly at the mercy of the United States for repairs and spare parts.

Michael Gove has at least been exiled to a domestic policy department where he can do nothing more than play about with Toby Young's whites-only schools for people who could afford to go private but are too tightfisted. He would be dangerous if he stood any chance of getting anywhere, but he doesn't. Fox, on the other hand, is very dangerous indeed. So dangerous that he appoints an operative of a foreign intelligence agency as his Special Adviser, a man refused full security clearance by the proper Tories - war-wary, pro-Commonwealth, supportive of British manufacturing, not infatuated with America, concerned for Britain's longstanding ties to the Arab world - who decide these things.

Does Liam Fox have full security clearance? If so, why? After all, it is obvious from whom he took the order to appoint this particular Special Adviser. Less obvious is who gave them the order to give that order. American espionage against Britain is a serious concern. But it is child's play compared to the reason for it, which has nothing to do with the American people, but rather is directed against them: espionage against the United States by the country that controls airport security there and in numerous other lands, and which has such a hold on telecommunications that it can listen to every call into or out of the country.