How tough life is for the Man From Auntie on £170k!
The spooks laid on a show for the Mail so that its reporter wrote of the MI5's fortress like London headquarters. It might be now but when Chris Mullin, at the time a Labour MP, visited Thames House in 2002 security seemed to be so lax that he had to wander round the building looking for a way out (page 235 of A View from the Foothills).
The spooks probably felt the need to whinge about how hard done by they are because a few days ago a report of secret evidence given to the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena Bombing, revealed MI5 had admitted it was so busy it had to sub contract tasks in the North West of England, a month before the bombing. See report from local radio station about evidence released on February 15, 2022.
If instead of going into secret session the inquiry had simply read this blog on July 24, 2018, they would have discovered it was quite evident that MI5 had failed to give sufficient attention to suicide bomber Salman Abedi. This is just one of a number of cases of slip ups by the spooks. Even so I am beginning to warm to Ken
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: In this spoof spy show, the posh Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and the dashing Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) tackle dark global forces.
MacCullum, the odd looking bloke who gets paid £170k for presiding over the shambles that is MI5.
For one thing he shares a surname with one of the actors from the Man From UNCLE, though given the spooks' close links with the BBC, he is actually more like the man from Auntie.
Jonathan Brind