“I’ve stopped speaking to the only civil servant I was still speaking to”

Monday

A man from MI5 has come to see me in the Home Office. Quivering with rage, I order him to tell me it’s not true that the security services don’t trust me or respect my abilities.

“It’s not true,” he says, obediently.

“Good,” I say.

Then the man from MI5 says that’s just him obeying orders, though. And I say, “Who from?” and he says, “You” and I say, “When?” and he says, “Just then” and I can feel myself growing a bit confused and quite cross.

“Just tell me,” I say, “that this isn’t still because of that time I had to resign over failing to tell the prime minister that I’d been secretly meeting the Israeli government.”

The man from MI5 asks