John le Carré warns of threat posed by secret services to democracy

Novelist defends himself against accusation former colleague John Bingham 'deplored' portrayal of intelligence services

Alison Flood

John le Carré has warned that the intelligence services could "become as much of a peril to our democracy as their supposed enemies" if they are not subjected to rigorous examination. The novelist was defending himself against the accusation that his former colleague John Bingham, upon whom he based his most famous creation, the spy George Smiley, "deplore[d]" how his novels revealed the "secret world" of the intelligence services.

Writing under his real name David Cornwell in a letter in Wednesday's Telegraph, the author and former MI5 and MI6 agent acknowledged the debt he owed his mentor Bingham, a man for whom he "shall always have unqualified admiration". But the novelist also gave a robust defence to the claim in Tuesday's Telegraph from Lord Lexden that Bingham "was not treated as respectfully as he deserved by his protégé, John le Carré", that Bingham was "hurt by the portrayal of his secret world in the novels", and that Bingham once said that le Carré "was my friend, but I deplore and hate everything he has done and said against the intelligence services".

John le Carré believes 'our secret services could in certain circumstances become as much of a peril to our democracy as their supposed enemies'. Photograph: Jane Bown

Le Carré, however, said that "where Bingham believed that uncritical love of the intelligence services was synonymous with love of country, I came to believe that such love should be examined. And that, without such vigilance, our secret services could in certain circumstances become as much of a peril to our democracy as their supposed enemies".

"John Bingham may indeed have detested this notion," wrote the novelist. "I equally detest the notion that our spies are uniformly immaculate, omniscient and beyond the vulgar criticism of those who not only pay for their existence, but on occasion are taken to war on the strength of concocted intelligence."

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http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/05/john-le-carre-secret-services-democracy-bingham