John le Carré thinks that the Guardian should have done more, post-leaks, to protect its prime leaker, Edward Snowden – and thus, presumably, that Vladimir Putin should have done rather less. It's a plausible enough charge, but it wholly misses the point. Snowden isn't a naive slip of a lad. He's an articulate, sentient operator. He knew, from day one, that he would soon be exposed. He knew that naming him made the documents he revealed irrefutable. He blew a long, shrill whistle of disgust.

There's no shelter a newspaper can provide in such circumstances, and no reassurance worth a damn. If a known source, seeking cash or safety, comes to a paper, then an explicit deal is made – and broken, for instance, if the paper in question is turning over millions of documents to Scotland Yard because Rupert Murdoch so decides. But all credit to Snowden. He went into this eyes wide open. And he's beginning to blow a secret surveillance world apart.