Chapter 4

On 1st February, 2010 the Prime Minister and his Cabinet agreed on a strategy to expose and remove from office the eight remaining members of The Inner Cadre. Paul Phillips had been convicted in May 2009 of wilfully violating UN Arms Trade Embargo 98/13 in addition to a catalogue of other offences including insider-dealing in shares, and was serving an eight-year jail sentence. Sarah Arbuthnot had been removed to a 'safe place' for her own protection and was continuing to provide the investigating team with important evidence and analysis of events.

Sufficient material had by now been gathered to comprehensively discredit Lady Maxwell-Duncan, Sir Donald Vale, Vernon Forrester and Suzanne Turner. However, although it was known that Sir Jonothan Doggett was The Inner Cadre's chairman, there was not one shred of evidence to implicate him: it was clear that his deputy, Sir Donald Vale was shouldering all responsibility for the ineptitude of the Foreign Office.

On 3rd February, the overall head of the Civil Service, Sir Brian Ward, was summoned to No. 10 Downing Street where he was presented with a copy of the investigating team's final report. This 680 page tome represented the culmination of a meticulous, exhausting and at times dangerous probe into the activities of The Inner Cadre.

In a presentation given by Miles Morgan in the Prime Minister's private office, with Sidney Plumstone in attendance throughout, it was revealed to Sir Brian that three members of the team had been murdered during the course of the inquiry, and a further seven remained critically ill in hospital. Miles Morgan mentioned that operatives from MI5 had been excluded from the investigating team, an omission which Sir Brian found most unusual, not to mention highly irregular. Miles Morgan then gave details of an acrimonious encounter between himself and the Director of MI5, Kevin Leamont, shortly before the trial of Paul Phillips.

Kevin Leamont had the reputation of being a bit of a bully: unfortunately for him he confronted a true master in the art of intimidation - moreover, one whose unimpeachable integrity gave him an almost impregnable degree of moral authority. Thus it was one more of many instances when 'Miles Moron' fulfilled all expectations associated with his alter ego: rumours of the MI5 supremo leaving the Personal Secretary's office nursing a black eye, a split lip, bruising to his lower abdomen and minor damage to his male credentials were neither confirmed or denied.

That bastion of British security had received a sharp and long-overdue reminder that, despite the necessary veil of secrecy, it was the general public who paid for MI5, and they had every right to insist upon total integrity in return. Given the knowledge that members of The Inner Cadre had been involved in MI5/MI6 activities earlier in their careers, it was reasonable to assume that they could continue to wield considerable influence within these organisations. It was therefore felt that neither MI5 or MI6 could be trusted until The Inner Cadre had been destroyed.

The security services' time would be more usefully spent in dealing with the residual problems in Ulster, drug-smuggling and racketeering. Indeed of late, progress in these latter areas seemed to be favouring the criminal fraternity. It was the elected government which was being undermined by a handful of unscrupulous civil servants and it would be the sole responsibility of Parliament to root them out and reassert its authority.

Immediately following Miles Morgan's candid remarks, the Prime Minister mercilessly lambasted Sir Brian Ward over the following:-

1. Forged documents and the planting of a 'Trojan Horse' within the Scottish National Party in order to discredit them, thereby rendering the Scottish Parliament ineffective.
2. The establishment of Sander's International Investigations Ltd. and Life-Line Security Corporation whose employees were, in effect, a private army operating on behalf of The Inner Cadre.
3. No fewer than seven instances of illegal arms sales, including the supply of proscribed items. These activities led to the forced resignation of Sir Hugh Catering, Foreign Secretary, in June 2007
4. The scandal following the simultaneous mass-escapes of prisoners from two jails run by Life-Line Security Corporation in November 2006, and the firm's submission of what was later discovered to be false evidence at the subsequent public enquiry. As a result of this gross perjury, the Home Secretary was forced to resign in June 2007.
5. The exoneration of media tycoon, Ralph Mullin as the outcome of a DTI Inquiry into his global consortium following his death.¹
6. Government department leaks, especially from the Home and Foreign Offices, the MOD and DTI had reached epic proportions, resulting in lengthy delays to the administration's legislative programme.
7. The criminal incompetence which was responsible for the tragedy of 31st March 2006 was the most serious event of all. (The Prime Minister, being aware of Sir Brian's unimaginative mind, did not elaborate further.

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