John Lloyd: Of Rocks, Russian Reminiscences and Spy Rituals

John Lloyd is a contributing editor at the FT.

In 2006 the Russian authorities announced they had discovered that Britain’s foreign intelligence service – MI6, now renamed the Secret Intelligence Service – was using a rock to help it uncover the secrets of the Russian state.

A rock?

When the allegations were put to him at a London press conference at the time, Prime Minister Tony Blair made light of it, repeating the formula that the "government does not comment on intelligence matters" – and adding, "except when we want to, obviously".

Old hands murmured that the Russians had watched too many James Bond films, in which "Q", the irascible head of technical supplies, introduces 007 to a panoply of useful gadgets packed into lighters, pens, car exhausts and the heel of Bond’s handmade brogues.

But it was true...