In fact they're probably being fabricated as we speak.
I very much doubt MI5 is about to throw open its doors to the general public to have a root around the files or that there was anything in May’s statement on Wednesday they didn’t already know about.
They also know exactly the lines Watson, Danczuk et al are perusing as they will be bugged, as will many of their associates.
Perhaps they do keep “two sets of books”.
But in questions to Theresa May the day before yesterday there were four specific questions from MPs about the role of the security services.
And they weren’t the usual “Would the Right Honourable member agree with me that MI5 do a wonderful job in protecting the nation” variety either.
All I was suggesting is that it is now harder for the security services to say we haven’t got the files or we can’t release them on the grounds of national security than in the past. That’s not to say they won’t try it.
But if you’d have asked the average person in the street at the height of the Troubles who Fred Holroyd was they’d have probably said he was a character in Coronation Street such was the level of disinterest amongst the general public about what the secret state was up at that time.
Even if they did know they would have probably shrugged their shoulders and said the IRA were fair game anyway.
Now practically everyone knows about the allegations of child abuse by senior politicians - a crime the public are much less forgiving about - making that much harder for there to be a cover up, certainly after Tebbit effectively let the cat out of the bag last Sunday and Tom Watson and some of his colleagues continue to ask awkward questions in the public arena.
I think Kalfindin’s post 381 is closer to the mark - some will be sacrificed to protect others.
Although they will then have to answer the question of why they didn’t do anything about the abuse they knew of at the time.
