Will Heaven

From my new Telegraph blog:

David Miliband did his best to play down the Facebook page which exposed the new head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, yesterday. But his sarcasm was unconvincing. The Foreign Secretary ended up interrupting Andrew Marr, sneering that everybody should “grow up”. He even questioned why the BBC were leading news broadcasts with the story:

“What does that say about you?… What do you know? You know that he wears a Speedo swimsuit. What is that? That’s not a state secret… The head of MI6 goes swimming. Wow.”

In reality, it had been reported that Lady Sawers, Sir John’s wife, had disclosed details on Facebook about a London flat used by the couple, as well as the whereabouts of family members. In my book, that’s a serious lapse in security – especially given that the profile was publicly listed. We’re talking about the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence, for God’s sake.

For a moment, though, let’s focus on the issue brought to our attention so adeptly by the Foreign Secretary. What was Sir John Sawers thinking when he put on those Speedos? And will Britain’s enemies take the new “C” seriously, now he has been revealed to the world in all his pasty glory?

Now the summer is really here, let’s get one thing straight: there are very few men who can get away with wearing short shorts. Cristiano Ronaldo, I am reliably informed, is one. Daniel Craig, the turnip-headed James Bond, may be another. But for most of us, surely the best bet is to followBarack Obama’s example and stick with longish board shorts. After all, it’s important to act your age – which is something to bear in mind, too, when you oldies are setting up Facebook accounts.

Postscript: Leave A Comment // Subscribe (RSS Feed)

The Next Post: Iran’s crackdown proves that the ‘Twitter revolution’ has made things worse
The Previous Post: Like Michael Jackson, I wanted to be Peter Pan