Look Over There, and Support Your Local Spooks

Despite today being the day for Mad Tessie May to flog her draft über-surveillance bill to Parliament, and despite the concerns voiced by Corbyn about the human rights record of Britain's new terrorist-busting Egyptian chums, Britain's Head Boy has decided to have a squeal about terrorism. By a remarkable coincidence, today is also the day when new information came to light about the recent Russian airliner crash in the Sinai Peninsula, necessitating dynamic passenger rescue measures, a COBRA meeting or so, and a grave pronouncement from the transport secretary that he doesn't categorically know what happened but that now is as good a time to panic as any.

Of course, Britain's Head Boy is not the chap to make cheap political capital out of a disaster, any more than he would try to manufacture a constitutional crisis out of a legitimate parliamentary vote; so presumably the intelligence services have pulled off yet another brilliant informational coup without needing to see the internet records of the entire population. One wonders how they manage it. Anyway, should it turn out that by another remarkable coincidence the British government is giving out correct information on this matter, presumably Britain's Head Boy will be inviting Vladimir Putin to stay the course in Syria, and not to negotiate with the murderers.