Secrecy and Power in the British State

In this text, the author argues that the British state uses and misuses the Official Secrets Act to perpetuate the rule of an unrepresentative elite who share narrow class interests. She retrieves the histories of men and women who have been victims of the secret state, revealing how it is their stories, not those in the headlines, which demonstrate how the secret state operates and undermines freedom. These stories are combined with theories on state secrecy which challenge existing assumptions about the British democratic state - it is asserted that a white, male, Oxbridge elite has maintained its grip on power by using "national security" to exclude and limit alternative political views. Looking at how British membership of the European Union may affect the relationship between the state, the citizen and secrecy, the author claims that until a greater understanding of what is happening is achieved, the British state is destined to remain undemocratic in many vital respects.