1988: Government loses Spycatcher battle

The British Government has lost its long-running battle to stop the publication of the controversial book Spycatcher, written by a former secret service agent.

Law Lords ruled the media can publish extracts from former MI5 officer Peter Wright's memoirs, because any damage to national security has already been done by its publication abroad.

But they agreed Mr Wright's book had indeed constituted a serious breach of confidentiality, the principle at the heart of the government's case against him for the last three years.

Despite the defeat Home Secretary Douglas Hurd claimed the ruling "vindicated" the government's attempts to preserve the life-long "duty of confidentiality".

However, Shadow Home Secretary Roy Hattersley, said the ruling now made the Government's position "demonstrably absurd."

He said in using the legal system the government had behaved in a "scandalous way when it must have known it would lose in the end".

These were genuine matters of public importance that the public should be allowed to know about.

Donald Trelford, editor of The Observer

