SINCE power and hierarchical structures first developed in society, the small ruling elite has always feared the wrath of the underlings who they see as threatening their wealth and privilege. 

That’s why they’ve always used spies, infiltrators and agents provocateurs to ascertain what the masses are thinking and if they are conspiring so that any incipient threat or revolt could be nipped in the bud. It hardly surprising, then, that the ruling class still makes full use of such methods but today with a whole array of the most modern technology to monitor all our electronic communications in a way that even George Orwell was unable to envisage.

In today’s relatively open and democratic society such methodology is more subject to scrutiny and exposure but it was not always so. Under the notorious Official Secrets Act — introduced in 1889 but modified continually since — much of this work was, and still is, covert and could not be talked about.