Lack of intelligence

Today the broadcast media are leading on the Mail "scoop" that the future head of MI6 had personal information published on Facebook.

The Conservatives are expressing concerns over the security implications. The Liberal Democrats are more hysterical, calling for a public inquiry.

Bizarre.

Why do we need an inquiry? What would it achieve?

Reading the Mail article, it appears the facts are fairly straightforward: the wife of a diplomat posts personal photos and other information on a networking site; she doesn't apply adequate privacy settings; an opportunistic journo spots the lack of privacy and manages to squeeze a splash out of it.

The information which raises security concerns include: "family holidays"; "showbiz friends"; and [tenuous] "links to David Irvine".

It is possible an opportunistic terrorist might use these to exploit the head of MI6, but I suspect even if the information wasn't available on Facebook that someone with the will and means might be able to find out such information anyway.

So an inquiry seems to be completely pointless, both in what it would discover and what it would achieve.

Perhaps we should have a public inquiry into the Liberal Democrats' opportunism?

The incident raises questions about online privacy in general and our own responsbilities in policing what information we share with the world. But it is not the earth shattering news the Liberal Democrats would have you believe.

David Miliband put it well when he spoke about the matter this morning:

"Are you leading the news with that? The fact that there's a picture that the head of the MI6 goes swimming - wow, that really is exciting. It is not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks, for goodness sake let's grow up."