We have waited a long time for the Russia report. Since Dominic Grieve complained last November that Downing Street was obstructing its release, I had been hoping someone might leak it to me. No one did. There seems to be a peculiar British willingness to put up with official secrecy, which is not seen in Europe or the US. Part of this is down to the naive view that the state is a force for good. And a love of medieval ritual: the MPs and peers who sit on the intelligence and security committee all swear an oath to “keep matters secret”.
In 2013 I wrote The Snowden Files, a book about the US whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Snowden came from an honourable tradition of civil disobedience. He knew his Henry Thoreau. By passing highly classified documents to the Guardian, Snowden put conscience above the law. Disclosure was in the public interest; he revealed a bulk collection of our electronic records – or mass spying – by GCHQ and the National Security Agency. If only more in Whitehall would do the same.
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