Dorril, Stephen and Ramsay, Robin. Smear! -- Wilson and the Secret State.
London: HarperCollins (Grafton), 1992. 390 pages.
The "secret state" in Britain includes MI5, which is responsible for
counterintelligence, and MI6, the secret intelligence service, which runs
foreign operations. But it can also include agents of influence in the
media, former security services personnel, private security firms that may
be fronting for the security services to provide "deniability," and think
tanks where elites set policy. Leftists and Labour Party activists have
long been the object of close interest (wiretapping, etc.) from this secret
state, and there appears to be even less official accountability in Britain
than there is in America. From the time that Harold Wilson became the leader
of the Labour Party in 1964, British political history has been rife with
their machinations. Wilson became increasingly conscious that his leadership
was being secretly undermined by others, even within his own cabinet.
This is the best-documented and most detailed history of the British
secret state from 1964-1979 that is currently available. It received high
praise from The Times Literary Supplement, the Observer, London Review of
Books, New Statesman and Society, and many others. Authors Stephen Dorril
and Robin Ramsay also founded Lobster magazine in 1983, which continues to
cover intelligence issues in Britain and the U.S.
ISBN 0-586-21713-4
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