Economical Veracity

Readers of a certain age will recall the Peter Wright affair, wherein Margaret Thatcher's government suffered a Streisand effect avant la lettre by attempting to prevent publication of a retired MI5 officer's memoir. Wright claimed that the intelligence services' battle against the treacherous, history-rewriting commies had included burgling and bugging friendly embassies, and attempting to force the Labour prime minister Harold Wilson out of office. Since those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, Thatcher's heirs and acolytes have duly replayed the old bag's tragic crusade for freedom as postmodern self-referential farce. After more than thirty years, the Cabinet Office is breaking the thirty-year rule and trying to suppress any account of Thatcher's attempt to suppress Wright's account. Fortunately, as the taxpayer has been good enough to foot the legal bills against anyone unpatriotic enough to demand that Her Majesty's Government obey its own laws, no funds from Party donors appear thus far to have been wasted in the effort.