The Economist - 04.12.2021

28 Britain The Economist December 4th 2021

search  presented.  The  reportreliesona

handful of articles and interviews,noneof

which establishes evidence ofharm.Much

is  made  of  an  online  perceptionsurvey

based on a six­minute fictionalvideoclip,

and a single question in a unrepresentative

survey  by  an  American  transgenderlobby

group.  The  growing  numberof“detransi­

tioners”—people who identifyastrans,on­

ly later to change their mind—isignored.

The third big complaint isthatthepro­

posals would introduce the nebulouscon­

cept of “gender identity” to Britishlawfor

the  first  time.  In  2020  a  grass­rootscam­

paign  by  feminists  succeededinforcing

the government to abandonplanstoallow

anyone  to  change  their  legalsexatwill.

That  would,  in  effect,  havemadeself­de­

scribed gender identity the decidingfactor

in who counted legally as a manora wom­

an,  abolishing  single­sex  spacesandser­

vices  at  a  stroke.  The  plansare“asmoke­

screen  for  bringing  gender­identityideol­

ogy  into  law,”  says  Maya  Forstater,oneof

the  founders  of  Sex  Matters,anorganisa­

tion campaigning for sex­basedrights.

The consultation comes asanindepen­

dent review of gender­identityservicesfor

children is under way, led byHillaryCass,a

former  president  of  the  RoyalCollegeof

Paediatrics and Child Health.Findingsare

expected  next  year.  “Why  notwaituntil

after  Cass  is  published?”  asksDrBell.But

the government faces a dilemma.Itwants

to appeal to younger voters byshowingit is

not stodgy, while also signallingtosocially

conservative  older  and  working­classvot­

ers that it is not too “woke”. 

This  complicates  a  second u­turnon

trans issues in quick succession.Andif the

bill  goes  before  Parliamentinitscurrent

form, mps may fear voting againstit,even

though  many  Conservativesandgrowing

numbers on the Labour benchesareunea­

sy.  Few  voters  realise  howmuchiscon­

cealed by the phrase “conversiontherapy”,

and mps may fear being smearedasbigots.

Perhaps most worrying istheimpacton

children.  Many,  it  seems,  areinterpreting

the stirrings of same­sex attractionasindi­

cating  a  trans  identity.  In  anarticlelast

year in BJPsych Bulletin, a medicaljournal,

Lucy  Griffin,  a  consultant  psychiatristin

Bristol,  and  co­authors  foundthat,ofthe

girls referred to gids in onecalendaryear,

only 8.5% were primarily attractedtoboys.

Collateral damage

Once such children reach 16,genderclinics

will  prescribe  synthetic  hormones.Such

drugs  were  used  to  “chemicallycastrate”

Alan Turing, Dr Griffin pointsout.Thegay

mathematician,  whose  code­breaking

helped defeat the Nazis, acceptedthedrugs

as an alternative to a prison sentence.“The

whole thing”, says Dr Griffin,“risksbecom­

ing  an  exercise  in  damagingthepeople

they are setting out to protect.”n

Spycraft

Open book

F

orthebetterpartofa century,themain

preoccupationsoftheheadofBritain’s

SecretIntelligenceService,morecommon­

ly knownasmi6,havebeenthemalfea­

sanceofRussiansorterroristsor—asinthe

latest James Bond movie, “No Time to

Die”—some combination of both. But

times are changing. On November30th

RichardMoore,thespyagency’sboss,gave

hisfirstpublicspeechsincetakingcharge

inOctober2020.Russiaandterrorismfea­

turedonhislistofthe“bigfour”priorities,

asdidthechallengefromIran’srevolution­

aryregime,whichismovingsteadilycloser

tobeingabletodevelopa nuclearweapon.

But despite Russia’s alarming military

build­uparoundUkraine(seeEuropesec­

tion)anda recentterroristattackinLiver­

pool,Chinawashisprimaryconcern.

“Adaptingtoa worldaffectedbytherise

ofChinaisthesinglegreatestpriorityfor

mi6,” declared Mr Moore. Such a pro­

nouncement wouldhave been unthink­

ableadecadeago,whenDavidCameron

andGeorgeOsborne,hischancellor,were

desperatetocourtChinesetradeandin­

vestment, and eager to play down the

threatfromtheCommunistParty’shackers

andintelligenceofficers.

Thepoliticalwindsnowblowfroma

different direction. A review of foreign

policy in March concluded that China

poseda “systemicchallenge...tooursecuri­

ty,prosperityandvalues”.InMayBritain

beganrippingoutChinese­madeHuawei

kit from its 5gmobile networks. It recently

sent  an  aircraft­carrier  to  Asia,  part  of  an

eastward  surge  of  warships.  It  is  also  in­

creasing co­ordination on intelligence and

military  issues  regarding  China  with  its

partners  in  the  Five  Eyes,  a  grouping  that

also  includes  America,  Australia,  Canada

and New Zealand. 

Mr  Moore,  who  joined  mi6  during  the

cold  war  and  spent  much  of  his  career  in

the  Middle  East,  said  that  his  service  was

also changing tack. “We are deepening our

understanding  of  China  across  the  uk in­

telligence  community,  and  widening  the

options  available  to  the  government  in

managing  the  systemic  challenges  that  it

poses,”  he  said.  Chinese  spies  are,  he

warned,  “highly  capable”  and  conducting

“large­scale espionage”. They are monitor­

ing  and  coercing  the  Chinese  diaspora  in

Britain  and  using  social  media  to  “distort

public discourse”. 

But Mr Moore’s most urgent warning re­

lated to science and technology. China, he

said,  was  “expanding  the  web  of  authori­

tarian  control  around  the  planet”  by  ex­

porting  surveillance  technology.  That  was

not  only  a  problem  for  recipients  made

vulnerable  to  Chinese  coercion,  but  also

for mi6 itself. “Our officers need to operate

invisibly to our adversaries,” he noted. Chi­

nese  control  of  smartphones,  apps  and

telecommunications  networks,  as  well  as

access  to  vast  repositories  of  personal  in­

formation—such as data from home genet­

ic­testing  kits  and  biometric  security  at

airports—have spun a “worldwide surveil­

lance web” that makes it harder for mi6 of­

ficers  to  operate  abroad  without  their

names and histories being uncovered. 

That  Mr  Moore  chose  to  air  such  con­

cerns in a public forum is itself a novelty.

His  agency  was  not  officially  avowed,  nor

were  its  chiefs  named,  until  some  years

after  he  joined  it  in  1987.  Perhaps  because

of the years he spent above­board as a dip­

lomat, he is unusually communicative. He

continues to operate his Twitter account, a

rarity among spymasters.

Such  openness  also  has  a  wider  pur­

pose,  however.  As  threats  evolve,  intelli­

gence  services  must  work  with  tech  com­

panies  and  other  outside  talent  to  stay

ahead.  That  requires,  said  Mr  Moore,  a

“sea­change...in  mi6’s  culture,  ethos  and

way of working”. The same urgency is visi­

ble in increasingly vigorous attempts to re­

cruit a wider range of people, something it

has struggled to do despite years of effort.

In  2021,  mi6  even  began  advertising  in

The Economistfor “individuals with diverse

skill sets and life experiences” to take part­

time  and  consulting  roles.  More  surpris­

ingly  still,  it  welcomed  applications  from

British and foreign nationals alike. The re­

sult is a seemingparadox. “To stay secret,”

said Mr Moore, “wearegoing to have to be­

come more open.”n

China looms ever larger for British

spies, says mi6’s chief

Aspook who likes to speak