Col@kibcol1049@mstdn.social
Stella Rimington, who died this week aged 90, always harboured bitterness for the handling of her appointment as the first female director-general of MI5, says The Daily Telegraph. John Major had come under attack for having no women in his Cabinet and decided to use her promotion as a “PR coup”. Without consulting Rimington, the government broke with precedent and announced her name to the public, prompting hordes of press to gather outside her front door.
Col@kibcol1049@mstdn.social
The so-called “housewife superspy” was forced to decamp to a hotel, then to sell her house and move into secure accommodation, and she and her family were given false names. “So mum,” her daughters would ask as they left the house, “who am I today?”