I read in this morning's DT that Frederick Forsyth is about to come out about his having once been a spy. Amused once again at the glamorous smell that continues to linger around the trade of spying which, I imagine, manages to combine a good slice of tedious leg-work with the glamour and which is, to my mind, a rather dirty trade. Not for nothing was it common for spies caught in war zones to be executed.
So on the one hand we go on about family values and proper behaviour towards all and sundry, all the good Christian (or Muslim) values, on the other we glamourise a trade, the stock-in-trade of which is lying, cheating and betrayal.
But there is some light at the end of this tunnel. With most spying now being conducted electronically, rather than in the flesh (or in the honey pots), a lot of the lying and cheating has been traded in for common or garden eavesdropping. Sordid perhaps, but rather less so.
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