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19
Geoffrey Prime - The GCHQ Mole
... because of the nature of GCHQ 's work and their need for staff
with esoteric specialisms they attracted many odd and eccentric
characters. Prime did not stand out as he might have done elsewhere.
UK Security Commission, Report on Geoffrey Prime,
May 1983 1
The Thatcher era was partly defined by mole-mania. In the
autumn of 1979 Margaret Thatcher made an announcement in
the House of Commons identifying Sir Anthony Blunt as the
'Fourth Man', one of a ring of Cambridge spies that had included
Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Her hand had
been forced because several newspapers had hinted strongly at
Blunt's KGB identity. Because of Blunt's close associations with
the royal family - he was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures -
this was as much a social as a security scandal. It also confirmed
the public perception of the Establishment as bungling toffs who
were not to be trusted with security matters. Although the
authorities had known about the Blunt case for more than a
decade, his public exposure unleashed a worldwide media quest
to uncover further traitors. A blizzard of unlikely names filled
the pages of the newspapers, including three former senior
members of MI5: Sir Roger Hollis, Graham Mitchell and Guy
Liddel1. 2
Margaret Thatcher found these matters intensely vexing. She
was also extremely agitated about what she called 'hostile forces'
attempting to foment industrial unrest. These included a broad
swathe of Trotskyites and militants, some of whom were in
touch with foreign governments, who wished to use industrial
action for political purposes. Strikes at British Leyland, Britain's