Some people express concern for my emotional wellbeing from attending the #spycops inquiry and listening to so many of these odious former undercover officers lie. Don't worry about me, but spare a thought for @BristleKRS who insists on reading their literary output.

The #spycops Inquiry returns on Monday 21st September with 2 witnesses: First the undercover officer HN60 cover name "Dave Evans" who infiltrated the SWP and then a number of animal rights groups, deceiving at least one woman into a sexual relationship. He will only appear remotely, and will be broadcast with the usual delay audio-only. Then one of the activists who exposed the unit, @helensteel12, who was deceived into a sexual relationship by undercover officer John Dines. It will be her 6th appearance at the inquiry. She will appear in person and broadcast with full video. ucpi.org.uk/2026/09/15/opera…

I’ll be back reporting from the #spycops inquiry on Monday in the usual fashion.

Whenever people hear about how undercover #spycops spied on activists, infiltrating protest groups and deceiving women into sexual relationships, they are always keen to know what they can do to protect their campaign from infiltration today. Though we know a lot about the historic tactics and what the undercover police used to do, we don’t have a checklist of the current methods used by Covert Human Intelligence Sources targeting protestors. The most powerful and important thing that anyone in a group that could be targeted by infiltration can do is guard against the disruption that these secret police would cause. Destabilising and undermining campaigns was considered the most effective element of the SDS Spycops unit by its managers. Setting people against each other, spreading rumour and gossip, causing distrust and division that ultimately tears organisations apart. Protecting our communities from infiltration isn’t about being paranoid about who might be a cop, but creating resilient collectives that don’t attack each other over minor disagreements. We’ve got a lot to do, and we all need to keep doing it together.

The last two witnesses at the undercover policing inquiry didn’t pull any punches when describing the sexual abuses of the #spycops officers they managed. Though they claimed they were totally unaware of the deplorable actions that took place on their watch. They were able to be so damning because they had a hand in shutting down the infamous Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). The problem is these same men have gone on to manage and oversee bigger and more widespread deployments. They tried to claim that everything was different now, that lessons had been learned. That protest groups are not subject to the invasive life-altering interventions that was the hallmark of SDS infiltration. But we know what has happened to political policing since the SDS was shut down. Activity that would have once been classed as protest or direct action is now being referred to as terrorism as part of a dystopian crackdown on dissent. What this means for infiltration of social movements today is worrying. We know we can’t take the cops’ word for it. The whole barrel is rotten.

The undercover police officer Bob Lambert infiltrated London Greenpeace as well as a number of animal rights groups in the early 1980s. During that time he deceived four women into long term sexual relationships. Having a child with one of them. Like all the #spycops who fathered children, he abandoned the child and mother as soon as his deployment came to an end. When it was discovered that the children that he had had with his wife were suffering from a hereditary disease that he carried, resulting in their deaths, he made no effort to contact ‘TBS’, even when his undercover past was exposed. The minutes of a meeting by a gold command group of senior officers decided that the Met Police had no duty to inform either the child or mother about the possible condition.

Former Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police 1994 to 2005, Sir David Veness told the #spycops inquiry he couldn't recall anything. His role gave him oversight of all of Special Branch, including the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) with operational responsibility for all undercover deployments. However, he claimed his subsequent job as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, wiped his memory of everything that happened during his Met Police tenure. This is an extract from the lunchtime live stream on the day: