We must not risk closing Five Eyes

THERE are times in life when you get advice and the quandary then is: what to do about it. Accept or rebuff? The key is not the advice itself but its source. If it comes from a complete fool, you ignore it. From an empty-headed ignoramus, the same. From one with a fanatical personal agenda – it will surely be biased.

And the same from important-sounding sources like the Confederation of British Industry, the Treasury mandarins and the Bank of England whose predictions have repeatedly turned out to be completely wrong.

But if it comes from one, let alone two, veterans who for long have remained silent and who now have reluctantly decided to speak out, and who each were at the pinnacle of achievement, you would yourself be the fool not to take what they have to say extremely seriously.

Years ago Charles Guthrie left Harrow and went to Sandhurst, joining a combat regiment. He went straight up the chain of command and finally became the Chief of Defence Staff, boss of all three armed forces. He went into harm’s way and survived. He learned the innermost secrets of how this country defends itself. Now he is Field Marshal Lord Guthrie.

Richard Dearlove went through university and was head-hunted for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service. He too accomplished covert missions, rising to Chief. He retired in 2004, disgusted by the mendacity of Tony Blair who swore there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when there were none. That stupid invasion of 2003 gave rise to Isis and was like pouring a drum of petrol over the Middle East. But in the traditions of his service, he remained silent. Now both men have spoken out to warn of the terrible danger stemming from what Theresa May hysterically seeks to do – pass into law the disastrous scuttle she achieved in her incompetent negotiations with Brussels.

If you sleep safe and sound at night, it is largely because this country has three things and they cost you about tuppence per pound of your tax money. We have, pound for pound spent, the best armed forces in the world. We

MUCH media outrage over Anna Soubry being harassed by protesters as she walked to Parliament last week and one of them called her a Nazi. It was a stupid and untrue thing to say but I recall Nye Bevan referring to Conservatives as vermin. (Now that’s going back a bit!) And while the insulter of last week was just a street lout, Bevan was a Cabinet minister at the time. Plus ça change… as the French say.

have the best special forces in the world, and we have the best intelligence services in the world. Even our enemies concede that and your enemy’s compliments are always the best. But a huge percentage of that superiority derives from information – accurate, proven and reliable. For short it is all called “intel”.

The mainstay of that superiority derives from three secret relationships based on trust. One is with the USA, which with its vast spending power gathers most of the world’s secret intel – and then shares it with us. That is the true “special relationship” – not the politicians posturing for the cameras. Next comes Nato. We see the tanks on manoeuvres; we do not see the constant interchange of secret intelligence between allies who trust each other not to leak what they are told. You may not have heard of the Five Eyes – USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand. All English-speaking, all London-derived democracies and a club whose members trust each other. Throughout this global brotherhood that keeps us safe is trust.

WHAT Sir Richard and Lord Guthrie have spotted in Theresa May’s “Settlement” is the small print. If we sign it, we would be committed to engagement in the EU’s ambitious plans to construct a truly pan-European defence-intel structure involving all members, including some (names unspecified for reasons of diplomacy) where our innermost secrets, the so-called family jewels, would remain secret for about an hour.

Then, to save themselves, all our Anglophone allies could no longer trust us to remain secure and would have to shut us off from all intel-sharing. It would be an unmitigated disaster. If for no other reason, that is why our MPs simply must reject the useless document our appalling negotiators brought back from their bended-knee talks in Brussels. Interesting also that none of the above appears in the synopsis version of the Settlement, which it appears is the only version Mrs May has actually read.