When did we start to think that the normal, OK, right thing to do with stray secret papers was to hand them over to a news organisation?
I can’t imagine that anybody would have done this during WW2, or during the 50s
Perhaps it’s a 1960s thing – poking fuddy-duddy fusspot authority in the eye
Or, these days, a way of holding authority to account
The way I was brought up, we took lost things to the ever-open police station (even children knew where that was). Maybe even got a small reward from the owner
We might even have been taught that Parliament was there to hold Government to account. On our behalf
Perhaps its all just part of the celebrity thing now. A James Bond fantasy - Only I know that I was the one who found the secret papers, held them in my hand, caused all this fuss
My identity?
– That’s my secret
