Secret squirrel

Interested to read in the FT today that our government has just announced the creation of something called the joint biosecurity centre, an independent body which will monitor the coronavirus threat level and provide relevant policy advice, and has appointed a very senior counterterrorism official to set it up. A chap who just happens to be the son of a former (Tory) Foreign Secretary, one Douglas Hurd. He is said to be in the running to become the next chief of MI6, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service. Clearly one of the boys.

One can see some overlap in the skill sets required by the new centre and by the world of secret squirrels, but it is an interesting choice. With the denizens of the secret squirrel world not obviously well adapted to free and open dialogue with the rest of us, something which is going to be needed if the rest of us are to cooperate, to assent to continued restrictions, perhaps over many more months. They are into surveillance and into collecting lots of information about lots of people - and are used to having access to all kinds of information not available to anyone much else. They thrive on secrecy and are not at all used to having to explain themselves to all and sundry. To the great unwashed.

Will they let any regular people - perhaps people who know something about epidemic control or something about viruses - into the new club?

Don't think that Corbie the Crow would have made such a pick.

PS: as of close of play today, I have moved 1,680 bricks during the current biosecurity alert. And to think that during national service back in the 1950's, they had new entrants digging holes and then filling them up again. Or painting piles of coals with whitewash to stop people pinching them.