Thatcher's conflict was a show of impotence

What is actually revealed is the total inadequacy of Britain's pretensions to be a global superpower.

It also revealed Britain's dependence on the US National Security Agency for signals intelligence. In consequence Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher and a close clique of military advisers decided that Britain should invest in its own Sigint satellites.

The problem is that the technology is very expensive.

The government is required to submit large expenditure for scrutiny by the parliamentary public accounts xommittee but the project, codenamed Zircon, was considered too top secret.

There were farcical efforts to keep Zircon secret. In 1986 Duncan Campbell exposed Zircon in a programme he was producing for BBC TV, but before it could be broadcast Special Branch raided the Glasgow BBC offices and Campbell's house in efforts to seize all copies, with dramatic scenes aired on TV news.

Campbell had, however, taken the precaution of depositing one in a safe place. A High Court injunction to gag him failed to be served because he had disappeared. His article in New Statesman of January 23 1987 was on sale at the newsagents before it was realised, prompting panic efforts to buy up all unsold magazines.

Zircon was cancelled in 1987. Today Britain's GCHQ is inextricably enmeshed with the NSA.

Anne Lee

Otley