'We had an infiltrator already' (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
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Prince Harry isnāt the only one who has been having trouble with his phone. About 40 years ago, I began to hear strange clicking sounds when I picked up the receiver; being of a rational cast of mind, I put this down to acute paranoia. Then I read somewhere that the British intelligence service phone-taps Left-wing academics as well as the usual suspects. I also noticed that the clicks grew more frequent whenever I was involved in some political controversy.
On one occasion, I was part of a picket line and was kicked on the shin by a police officer, who I suppose was only doing his job. AĀ few days later, being a firm believer in preaching to the unconverted, I gave a talk on socialism to the sixth form at Eton, and entered the classroom limping. I told the boys that I had been kicked on a picket line by a copper and they laughed politely, assuming that I was joking. Presumably they believed neither that the police could be violent nor that Oxford dons could be picketers. By this point, the clickings had begun to sound like a pair of mad castanets.
I took to chatting to the silent listener at the other end of the line, asking whether it was true that spies were trained to kill with a matchbox and why they had allowed MI5 to be run for some years by a Soviet agent. Was this really the way to protect us from socialist slavery?
These one-sided conversations were rather like prayer. They were addressed to an immensely powerful, almost omniscient being who had the power to inflict torture on you, but also who may or may not have existed and whose reality one had to take on faith. It is said that one such professional eavesdropper resigned from the service in protest at being required to spend his days listening to the phone conversations between a well-known British Leftist and his seven-year-old daughter. The Leftist in question also had regular political discussions over the phone with a friend throughout the Seventies; a few years later, since neither of them could remember what they had said, they considered asking M15 for transcripts.
Finally, I got to meet a couple of spooks face to face, though probably not those who were bugging my phone. Two men claiming to be journalists turned up at my door and began to quiz me about a Left-wing group of which I was then a member. When I made to shut the door on the pair, one of them dangled before my eyes a highly confidential document I had written for the group and foolishly entrusted to the post.
One of these men might well have been a journalist, but the other almost certainly wasnāt. Burly and slow of speech, he looked more like a detective, and seemed remarkably well-informed about the history of Marxism. He was particularly interested in discovering the exact doctrinal differences between my group and a rival outfit on a highly technical issue in Marxist economics, and before long the two of us had launched into a deep scholarly discussion of these matters, full of erudite allusions and elaborate digressions, while the āreal journalistā stared miserably at his notebook and waited for it to stop.
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SubscribeImagine being this age and proudly boasting of your Marxist bona fides. 100 million dead, and this guy is reminiscing about being a useful idiot 40 years ago.
Are the editors of UnHerd contemporary useful idiots? It won’t be long before we see Owen Jones, George Monbiot, Alistair Campbell, Polly Toynbee and other Guardianistas publishing here (to give the broadest spectrum of views of course). I guess the intelligentsia, the graduate classes, will ultimately lean to the Left ā it’s just a question of how far. The craving to reorganise the world along more rational lines is in their DNA.
I agree, though that word ‘rational’ should probably be in sneer-marks.
It’s a relative term. Anyway, as I’ve said in the past, social engineers are like urban planners ā they want to clear away everything traditional (ie. not rationally thought out) to make way for their brave new world peopled with new improved humans.
As a mostly-liberal with deep respect for (some) tradition, I find that to be very aptly observed on your part. The idea(s) that a more rational way can be systematically, collectively imposed on our “unfortunate” lower-animal-nature, to a net social benefit, will probably never die.
“New and improved humans, now with: Objective Reasoning / Communism/ Logical Positivism /A.I. Interface”, etc. Might be best to acknowledge the creaturely side of our humanity, tweaking our imperfect institutions while bearing in mind that, in most cases, starting over from scratch could very well make things much worse.
As a mostly-liberal with deep respect for (some) tradition, I find that to be very aptly observed on your part. The idea(s) that a more rational way can be systematically, collectively imposed on our “unfortunate” lower-animal-nature, to a net social benefit, will probably never die.
“New and improved humans, now with: Objective Reasoning / Communism/ Logical Positivism /A.I. Interface”, etc. Might be best to acknowledge the creaturely side of our humanity, tweaking our imperfect institutions while bearing in mind that, in most cases, starting over from scratch could very well make things much worse.
It’s a relative term. Anyway, as I’ve said in the past, social engineers are like urban planners ā they want to clear away everything traditional (ie. not rationally thought out) to make way for their brave new world peopled with new improved humans.
Yup, rationality is such a stupid idea.
The superimposition of non-voluntary, Rational Systems on a pre-existing, largely inescapable Human Nature is a stupid idea, a stupid pattern of ideas that has racked up documented historical failures–pick your favorites.
The superimposition of non-voluntary, Rational Systems on a pre-existing, largely inescapable Human Nature is a stupid idea, a stupid pattern of ideas that has racked up documented historical failures–pick your favorites.
I agree, though that word ‘rational’ should probably be in sneer-marks.
Yup, rationality is such a stupid idea.
Reminds me of the late, dreadful Eric Hobsbawm, the darling of many a Quisling* soirƩe.
(* Hampstead, Islington and other salubrious parts of North London.)
I don’t think he was. I didn’t;t see any boasting there: more a wry awareness of a mis-spent decade or two.
Unkind. Terry can laugh at himself. Can you?
And capitalism never killed anyone did it? Ever heard of the First World War? Did you ever read a word of Marx? He got a lot wrong, but he also changed philosophy and economics and even economists who disagree still can’t explain why the tendency towards monopoly in capitalism is evident and obvious and also why monopoly is brilliant for us. Marx met some Russian ‘Marxists’ before he died and said: “If they are Marxists I’m not.” I imagine Jesus might have said something similar about quite a few ‘Christians’. Weber said “All sociology is an argument with the ghost of Marx.” Marxist concepts will still be debated long after we are dead and still discussed in the next couple of centuries. Just in the same way Plato, Aristotle, etc exercise human thought.
Capitalism sure broke a lot of eggs, but at least we got the omelette. Where’s the Marxist omelette?
Eh?? Do you not understand that Marx was a HUGE FAN OF CAPITALISM?Obviously not. I would wager a large sum that as soon as you see the name Marx, or the term Marxist, you salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs and launch into a diatribe and have NEVER READ A WORD MARX WROTE. I won’t expect a response because you won’t have read a thing.
Eh?? Do you not understand that Marx was a HUGE FAN OF CAPITALISM?Obviously not. I would wager a large sum that as soon as you see the name Marx, or the term Marxist, you salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs and launch into a diatribe and have NEVER READ A WORD MARX WROTE. I won’t expect a response because you won’t have read a thing.
Capitalism sure broke a lot of eggs, but at least we got the omelette. Where’s the Marxist omelette?
Are the editors of UnHerd contemporary useful idiots? It won’t be long before we see Owen Jones, George Monbiot, Alistair Campbell, Polly Toynbee and other Guardianistas publishing here (to give the broadest spectrum of views of course). I guess the intelligentsia, the graduate classes, will ultimately lean to the Left ā it’s just a question of how far. The craving to reorganise the world along more rational lines is in their DNA.
Reminds me of the late, dreadful Eric Hobsbawm, the darling of many a Quisling* soirƩe.
(* Hampstead, Islington and other salubrious parts of North London.)
I don’t think he was. I didn’t;t see any boasting there: more a wry awareness of a mis-spent decade or two.
Unkind. Terry can laugh at himself. Can you?
And capitalism never killed anyone did it? Ever heard of the First World War? Did you ever read a word of Marx? He got a lot wrong, but he also changed philosophy and economics and even economists who disagree still can’t explain why the tendency towards monopoly in capitalism is evident and obvious and also why monopoly is brilliant for us. Marx met some Russian ‘Marxists’ before he died and said: “If they are Marxists I’m not.” I imagine Jesus might have said something similar about quite a few ‘Christians’. Weber said “All sociology is an argument with the ghost of Marx.” Marxist concepts will still be debated long after we are dead and still discussed in the next couple of centuries. Just in the same way Plato, Aristotle, etc exercise human thought.
Imagine being this age and proudly boasting of your Marxist bona fides. 100 million dead, and this guy is reminiscing about being a useful idiot 40 years ago.
You’d think the author would know about characters in Dostoyevsky’s novels, wouldn’t you? From the wikipedia entry for Demons:
ļ»æ
You’d think the author would know about characters in Dostoyevsky’s novels, wouldn’t you? From the wikipedia entry for Demons:
ļ»æ
Who on Earth would waste their time and their working life hacking Terry Eagleton’s phone?
Someone with a high boredom threshold. Perhaps MI5 use him for training recruits in the art of staying awake.
Well, Special Branch and MI5 had to justify their budgets somehow – and there was a Cold War on.
Someone with a high boredom threshold. Perhaps MI5 use him for training recruits in the art of staying awake.
Well, Special Branch and MI5 had to justify their budgets somehow – and there was a Cold War on.
Who on Earth would waste their time and their working life hacking Terry Eagleton’s phone?
Thank you for reminding us that no institution has done more cumulative damage to the national security of this country than the University of Cambridge.
It should dissolved forthwith and the site cornered with a giant solar āfarmā, rather like the rest of Cambridgeshire.
I think you’re forgetting all the scientific contributions that Cambridge made that were helpful to our national security – jet engines, computing, … . I blame the arts grads for letting the side down.
Indeed I had NOT forgotten the āscientificā contribution Cambridge has made, and like your good self place ALL the blame on the Arts grads!
However it is worth considering that the greatest event in human history bar none, the English Industrial Revolution, owed virtually nothing to Oxbridge.
Almost without exception the original āindustrialā Titans were self educated men of very humble origins.
Agreed. If there were ever any “heroes of the revolution”, those are the men I’d name. I know, they were all white men. But we can’t change history just because it’s so inconvenient, can we ?
Funny how there was so little social mobility in the past, isn’t it ? How did Telford or Wolsey or Thomas Cromwell ever do it ?
I’d suggest the technological revolution, largely around Silicon Valley starting around the 1960s, is right up there. Afraid the heyday of that in the 60s to 80s was pretty much pale, stale white men once again. But much more diverse now.
At least in the Western World from Ancient Greece onwards, men of talent, white or not, have always managed to āfightā their way to the top.
Rather inspirational I have always thought.
A few women too. Joan of Arc, Margaret Thatcher, doubtless several more.
A few women too. Joan of Arc, Margaret Thatcher, doubtless several more.
At least in the Western World from Ancient Greece onwards, men of talent, white or not, have always managed to āfightā their way to the top.
Rather inspirational I have always thought.
Amen.
Agreed. If there were ever any “heroes of the revolution”, those are the men I’d name. I know, they were all white men. But we can’t change history just because it’s so inconvenient, can we ?
Funny how there was so little social mobility in the past, isn’t it ? How did Telford or Wolsey or Thomas Cromwell ever do it ?
I’d suggest the technological revolution, largely around Silicon Valley starting around the 1960s, is right up there. Afraid the heyday of that in the 60s to 80s was pretty much pale, stale white men once again. But much more diverse now.
Amen.
Indeed I had NOT forgotten the āscientificā contribution Cambridge has made, and like your good self place ALL the blame on the Arts grads!
However it is worth considering that the greatest event in human history bar none, the English Industrial Revolution, owed virtually nothing to Oxbridge.
Almost without exception the original āindustrialā Titans were self educated men of very humble origins.
I think you’re forgetting all the scientific contributions that Cambridge made that were helpful to our national security – jet engines, computing, … . I blame the arts grads for letting the side down.
Thank you for reminding us that no institution has done more cumulative damage to the national security of this country than the University of Cambridge.
It should dissolved forthwith and the site cornered with a giant solar āfarmā, rather like the rest of Cambridgeshire.
Does anyone else find themselves reading Prof Eagleton’s articles in the voice of Jim Broadbent?
Does anyone else find themselves reading Prof Eagleton’s articles in the voice of Jim Broadbent?
Well at least this contribution had some entertainment value.
Reading Eagleton’s usual guff reminds one of nothing more than the fellow he describes as resigning after listening to conversations with a seven year old for too.long.
Those noises he was hearing on the phoneline, and his reaction to them… might they be a pre-internet version of ‘click’bait?
Well at least this contribution had some entertainment value.
Reading Eagleton’s usual guff reminds one of nothing more than the fellow he describes as resigning after listening to conversations with a seven year old for too.long.
Those noises he was hearing on the phoneline, and his reaction to them… might they be a pre-internet version of ‘click’bait?
Poor Terry, he so wants to be important.
Poor Terry, he so wants to be important.
Are the phone clicks audible because the bug ers are sloppy or are they audible because they want you to hear clicks whether or not they are bugging you. Are the clicks a message in themselves.
Precisely, in fact a form of false flattery easily accepted by narcissists and the like.
Household Cavalry Officers are notoriously hopeless at ” signals”….Having said that, I never forget my signals instructor at Camberley Comprehensive, one Colour Sergeant Crisp, Royal Marines, on my signals test.. ” Right, Mr Smanger Terrnerr.. tune in this ere C42 radio…. pause… yer’ avent got an effin clue, ‘ ave yer serrr…. typical Foot Guard… pause, form ticked ” Right. eff off , serr… you’ve passed”……
Piccadilly Cowboys or Galloping Grocers, take your pick!
Piccadilly Cowboys or Galloping Grocers, take your pick!
Household Cavalry Officers are notoriously hopeless at ” signals”….Having said that, I never forget my signals instructor at Camberley Comprehensive, one Colour Sergeant Crisp, Royal Marines, on my signals test.. ” Right, Mr Smanger Terrnerr.. tune in this ere C42 radio…. pause… yer’ avent got an effin clue, ‘ ave yer serrr…. typical Foot Guard… pause, form ticked ” Right. eff off , serr… you’ve passed”……
To know for sure, you would need to learn the Morse code.
managed that… Tango hotel alpha november kilo Sierra…
actually no.. thats for Matelots.. I’m so thick, I confused it with the military alphabet.. or the italian Dott. Dash…
actually no.. thats for Matelots.. I’m so thick, I confused it with the military alphabet.. or the italian Dott. Dash…
managed that… Tango hotel alpha november kilo Sierra…
You may be right. Stupid as the cops are, the visit by the Special Branch ‘journalist’ must surely have been an effort at gentle intimidation. ‘We’re watching you. As if you didn’t know.’
There’s been a fair bit of that from Polis Scotland under the Sturgeon junta.
Precisely, in fact a form of false flattery easily accepted by narcissists and the like.
To know for sure, you would need to learn the Morse code.
You may be right. Stupid as the cops are, the visit by the Special Branch ‘journalist’ must surely have been an effort at gentle intimidation. ‘We’re watching you. As if you didn’t know.’
There’s been a fair bit of that from Polis Scotland under the Sturgeon junta.
Are the phone clicks audible because the bug ers are sloppy or are they audible because they want you to hear clicks whether or not they are bugging you. Are the clicks a message in themselves.
This is the most coherent thing that Terry Eagleton has written for unherd so far.
But I pity the eavesdroppers who had to listen to him.
But I pity the eavesdroppers who had to listen to him.
This is the most coherent thing that Terry Eagleton has written for unherd so far.
Harry is of course not suing the intelligence services but the Mirror Group. All three main ‘services’ spying on us are now headed by Harry’s Dad. If this is a family squabble, then why is it being conducted in the public courts? Harry perhaps wants to avoid the thorny subject of the intelligence services because he is still hoping for a bit of pocket money from his Dad and protection from the military that is not afforded even to soldiers who don’t go around boasting about their body count.
Harry is of course not suing the intelligence services but the Mirror Group. All three main ‘services’ spying on us are now headed by Harry’s Dad. If this is a family squabble, then why is it being conducted in the public courts? Harry perhaps wants to avoid the thorny subject of the intelligence services because he is still hoping for a bit of pocket money from his Dad and protection from the military that is not afforded even to soldiers who don’t go around boasting about their body count.
Utterly delusional. TE believes that he was important enough for someone to bother tapping his phone?
Unfortunately it is not delusional. I had a friend who was a teenaged hunt saboteur – got visited a few times by special branch. Such overreaches are very common, though thankfully in the West they’ll almost always amount to nothing.
His point, it seems to me, is that much of Special Branch-MI5 was itself so hopelessly, pointlessly unimportant, it occupied itself surveilling someone as minor as him.
Never seen The Lives of Others? These pigState bureaucracies always metastasise, just as every brand of the Civil Service, NHS and Stonewall and Oxfam have done, and find themselves enough ‘work’ to justify ever-expanding budgets, staff and powers.
Communism is alive and well – and we in ‘the west’ are sliding right into it.
Exactly. āCommunismā as a concept has morphed far from its ideological aspiration to Equality into popular shorthand for a very, very real Totalitarianism in the hands of an unelected elite worshipping the altar of something they like to call Equity. Their Equity.
Exactly. āCommunismā as a concept has morphed far from its ideological aspiration to Equality into popular shorthand for a very, very real Totalitarianism in the hands of an unelected elite worshipping the altar of something they like to call Equity. Their Equity.
Unfortunately it is not delusional. I had a friend who was a teenaged hunt saboteur – got visited a few times by special branch. Such overreaches are very common, though thankfully in the West they’ll almost always amount to nothing.
His point, it seems to me, is that much of Special Branch-MI5 was itself so hopelessly, pointlessly unimportant, it occupied itself surveilling someone as minor as him.
Never seen The Lives of Others? These pigState bureaucracies always metastasise, just as every brand of the Civil Service, NHS and Stonewall and Oxfam have done, and find themselves enough ‘work’ to justify ever-expanding budgets, staff and powers.
Communism is alive and well – and we in ‘the west’ are sliding right into it.
Utterly delusional. TE believes that he was important enough for someone to bother tapping his phone?
Typical naive leftist. If it’s true that he was a threat to national security in those days his home would have had microphones plumbed into the mains electric. Clicks on his house phone would have sent him running for public phones if he was up to anything. If he was so dodgy his handlers would have issued him with a scanning device. More likely he would never use the phone at all.
Probably somebody winding him up or doing some training “Look at the stupid lefty, boys.” He should read some John le CarrĆ© and blush with hindsight. And yes, I do know about these things.
Typical naive leftist. If it’s true that he was a threat to national security in those days his home would have had microphones plumbed into the mains electric. Clicks on his house phone would have sent him running for public phones if he was up to anything. If he was so dodgy his handlers would have issued him with a scanning device. More likely he would never use the phone at all.
Probably somebody winding him up or doing some training “Look at the stupid lefty, boys.” He should read some John le CarrĆ© and blush with hindsight. And yes, I do know about these things.
“My tutor never tried to recruit me, given that he was aware of my politics”
“The Manager never picked me to play centre back for England, given that he was aware of my politics (I’m square enough to like Maggie Thatcher), and it had nothing to do with the fact that I am in fact hopeless at football, as are all people of Indian descent”
You said it. Though actually, India stands at 101st out of 211 in the current FIFA rankings.
You said it. Though actually, India stands at 101st out of 211 in the current FIFA rankings.
“My tutor never tried to recruit me, given that he was aware of my politics”
“The Manager never picked me to play centre back for England, given that he was aware of my politics (I’m square enough to like Maggie Thatcher), and it had nothing to do with the fact that I am in fact hopeless at football, as are all people of Indian descent”
Maybe spooks want you to know, deniably, that they are watching you? Seems to me that might be a great way for them to ‘dampen fervour’ of those they deem to be at some, probably low risk of becoming an enemy of the state. Moreover, a silent tap is surely eminently achievable, and they’d know their taps make a click.
Maybe spooks want you to know, deniably, that they are watching you? Seems to me that might be a great way for them to ‘dampen fervour’ of those they deem to be at some, probably low risk of becoming an enemy of the state. Moreover, a silent tap is surely eminently achievable, and they’d know their taps make a click.
I naively assumed that my phone calls w/ a prominent anti-war activist (which were all about our personal lives or esoteric feminist philosophy) couldn’t _really_ have been bugged, though the constant clicks confused me. This was during the early Iraq invasion–and I’ll never forget as he was talking to me in the car driving past a nuclear facility how it went off the charts. That’s when it clicked, so to speak.
Ironically, those documents & transcripts are probably a kind of insurance now that I’m in the pesky heterodox camp. Maybe they’ll reduce my Gulag sentence for becoming a “domestic te*****t” by virtue of advocating online and via picket signs for women’s sex-based rights, for child protection, & for aggressive prosecution of recidivist criminals who’re the scourge of beleaguered Black communities, instead of spouting fourth wave anti-racist grift that’s killing Black people in the US at a rate not seen since the Atlantic passage.
I naively assumed that my phone calls w/ a prominent anti-war activist (which were all about our personal lives or esoteric feminist philosophy) couldn’t _really_ have been bugged, though the constant clicks confused me. This was during the early Iraq invasion–and I’ll never forget as he was talking to me in the car driving past a nuclear facility how it went off the charts. That’s when it clicked, so to speak.
Ironically, those documents & transcripts are probably a kind of insurance now that I’m in the pesky heterodox camp. Maybe they’ll reduce my Gulag sentence for becoming a “domestic te*****t” by virtue of advocating online and via picket signs for women’s sex-based rights, for child protection, & for aggressive prosecution of recidivist criminals who’re the scourge of beleaguered Black communities, instead of spouting fourth wave anti-racist grift that’s killing Black people in the US at a rate not seen since the Atlantic passage.
Very entertaining!
Very entertaining!
Amusing article, in which Eagleton proudly reveals that he consorted on close terms with a paedophile
And how do you know YOU haven’t?
Eagleton was unaware of the individual’s peccadilloes. Had he know, ISTM, it would have been pretty clear who the mole was.
Yes, ofc. But it does cast a darker shadow over the tawdry little Marxist group he speaks about with such pride, and the sort of people who might have been drawn to it.
There’s another article in UnHerd today about the history of paedophilia within the German Greens. And pushing every sexual boundary has long been a crusade of the Far Left
Yes, ofc. But it does cast a darker shadow over the tawdry little Marxist group he speaks about with such pride, and the sort of people who might have been drawn to it.
There’s another article in UnHerd today about the history of paedophilia within the German Greens. And pushing every sexual boundary has long been a crusade of the Far Left
And how do you know YOU haven’t?
Eagleton was unaware of the individual’s peccadilloes. Had he know, ISTM, it would have been pretty clear who the mole was.
Amusing article, in which Eagleton proudly reveals that he consorted on close terms with a paedophile
I seem to be in the minority here but Terry offers an endearing and there but for the grace of God enduring British ability to look his own and wider history wryly and humanely in the mirror. My only dispute is his spelling of Colombia. And my only regret that I wasnāt there for his talk at Eton. Floreat Etona!
I seem to be in the minority here but Terry offers an endearing and there but for the grace of God enduring British ability to look his own and wider history wryly and humanely in the mirror. My only dispute is his spelling of Colombia. And my only regret that I wasnāt there for his talk at Eton. Floreat Etona!
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