Listeners to Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday were treated to an interview with Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, who declared that Britain was going through a “political nervous breakdown”. He added that neither the two Tory leadership candidates, nor Jeremy Corbyn, “have the standing that we have become used to in our top leadership”.
For a former senior public servant to say this was quite something. For one who headed an organisation known for operating in the shadows it was extraordinary. He even said David Cameron had been “unwise” to hold the EU referendum.
It followed reports that intelligence material was withheld from Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary at the behest of the genuinely secretive Theresa May. It also followed