Andrew Defty
@adefty
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Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Lincoln, UK. Parliament, the intelligence services, a little bit of social policy. Views are my own.
Lincoln
Joined July 2009
My latest article on intelligence oversight in the U.K. out now in @IntelNatSecJnl focuses on the role of Ministers in providing accountability - ‘Familiar but not intimate’: Executive oversight of the UK intelligence and security agencies
tandfonline.com
Studies of the relationship between ministers and UK intelligence agencies have tended to focus on the government’s use of intelligence, while studies of intelligence oversight have focused almost ...
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RT @Sandbagger_01: Hugely significant individual in the history of the UK community. First female DG of MI5, projected into the spotlight i….
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RT @Elgar_Law: Research Handbook on Intelligence and International Law.Edited by @RussellBuchan and @InakiNavarrete, Contributors include:….
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How the Sunday Telegraph reported Stella Rimington’s appointment as D-G of MI5 in December 1991. Spot the clichés.
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RT @ChiefMI6: Sad to hear of the death of Dame Stella Rimington, a true trailblazer-the first female, and avowed, DG of our sister service,….
mi5.gov.uk
We are saddened by the death of former MI5 Director General Dame Stella Rimington who died on 3rd August 2025.
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RT @Sandbagger_01: "1 in 4 of those in the current 6,000-strong Senior Civil Service went to independent school". That's despite the fact….
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RT @Sandbagger_01: How spy agencies are experimenting with the newest AI models
economist.com
America has better technology. But will China adopt it more quickly?
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RT @Sandbagger_01: “You’ve got the great and good on the board, you’ve got a lord here, a lady there, you’ve got a spook, you’ve got the ex….
politico.eu
Lucrative, freewheeling — and largely unregulated — private intelligence and security firms are booming in the land of James Bond and John le Carré.
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The Intelligence and Security Committee will be conducting an inquiry into the Afghan data breach
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RT @Richard_AHolmes: NEW: Budget cuts and promotion freezes are seeing staff at UK intelligence agencies leave for the private sector. Wi….
inews.co.uk
The UK's domestic security agency is losing staff in search of better career progression, sources have said
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RT @thetimes: More than 100 British special forces troops, MI6 spies and military officers were named in the data leak along with the where….
thetimes.com
The Times has analysed the data which is also understood to have revealed the whereabouts of Afghans seeking sanctuary in the UK
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RT @andymycock1: Lowering the voting age to 16 will equalise youth political rights across the UK but comes with some significant policy ch….
theconversation.com
Changing the law opens space for a wider conversation about where young people sit in British society.
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My employer is using the ugly compound word 'rightsizing' to describe the closing of building and the compression of office and teaching space. I had a look in the OED just so we're clear about what that means.
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Not for the first time, this reflects different views of the ISC. The Courts tend to view the ISC as a statutory body with significant powers, while recent governments and sometimes the agencies as well, tend to view it as a parliamentary inconvenience to be ignored at will.
I genuinely think this whole story is actually something close to the worst damage you can really imagine for constitutional norms. (Or at least what our constitutional norms should be, in terms of the crown in parliament being sovereign, rather than bureaucrats or judges.)
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Accepting security briefings on Privy Council basis as LOTO is a double edged sword. When it comes to scrutiny being outside the loop may better than being informed but bound by secrecy.
Kemi Badenoch was offered security briefing in March where she would have been told about Afghan data leak & secret resettlement scheme for first time. But she didn't attend because she didn't think it was urgent. Tory leader's spox said that as opposition leader she received.
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Defence Minister, Lord Coaker, in @UKHouseofLords yesterday “I would think that the Intelligence and Security Committee, given the way in which it operates, should have everything made available to it so that it can consider it and, where necessary, question Ministers and others”
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