Tony Comer
@tonycomer.bsky.social
Former Departmental Historian at GCHQ.
From Threads. www.threads.com/@contagiousl... Animal welfare meets immigration policy.
Contagious Laughter (@contagiouslaughter.official) on Threads
Following a ban on using animals for entertainment, the Prime Minister of Denmark explains a complication that arose when the state subsequently had to purchase four elephants from the circus. 😂 funny...
www.threads.com
October 13, 2025 at 7:13 PM
From Threads. www.threads.com/@contagiousl... Animal welfare meets immigration policy.
Out to lunch at a pub today and the server asked what drinks people wanted. One asked for Chardonnay and was told 'We don't have any Chardonnay but our house wine is made from the same grape'. 'OK. I'll have that then '
October 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Out to lunch at a pub today and the server asked what drinks people wanted. One asked for Chardonnay and was told 'We don't have any Chardonnay but our house wine is made from the same grape'. 'OK. I'll have that then '
Excellent review!
My review of the second volume of the official history of ASIO.
As a student of organisational governance, I love how this book is as much an organisational history as an operational one, especially when looking at ASIO under the Whitlam Government.
cc: @tonycomer.bsky.social
As a student of organisational governance, I love how this book is as much an organisational history as an operational one, especially when looking at ASIO under the Whitlam Government.
cc: @tonycomer.bsky.social
Book Review — The Protest Years: The Official History of ASIO: 1963-1975
A lesson in organisational and stakeholder dynamics
open.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Excellent review!
I've had an article published in Diplomacy & Statecraft: 'Behind the Enigma: How GCHQ's Authorised History Appeared'.
The first 50 people to click on the link get a copy for free!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BCZTB...
The first 50 people to click on the link get a copy for free!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BCZTB...
September 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I've had an article published in Diplomacy & Statecraft: 'Behind the Enigma: How GCHQ's Authorised History Appeared'.
The first 50 people to click on the link get a copy for free!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BCZTB...
The first 50 people to click on the link get a copy for free!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BCZTB...
I explore need-to-know again in a post at www.siginthistorian.blogspot.com looking at an Official Secrets Act case in which a clear Sigint connection was ignored because the investigators had no idea it existed.
September 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I explore need-to-know again in a post at www.siginthistorian.blogspot.com looking at an Official Secrets Act case in which a clear Sigint connection was ignored because the investigators had no idea it existed.
How good is 'I was there' as a guarantee of historical memory? Not, perhaps, as good as it might seem. A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at records and memory.
August 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM
How good is 'I was there' as a guarantee of historical memory? Not, perhaps, as good as it might seem. A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at records and memory.
How to sort out parking on busy roads: this is what our council has done.
August 16, 2025 at 6:37 PM
How to sort out parking on busy roads: this is what our council has done.
It's easy to overclassify and it's easy to be nervous about release. An illustration of this point in a new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com
July 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM
It's easy to overclassify and it's easy to be nervous about release. An illustration of this point in a new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com
A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at what can happen when two opposing sides are using the same cryptosystems.
July 3, 2025 at 11:47 AM
A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at what can happen when two opposing sides are using the same cryptosystems.
RAF A400M ZM416 (c/s NAPER60) being used to teach pilots how to fly at 600 ft. I assume they have the aircon switched on!
June 17, 2025 at 5:44 PM
RAF A400M ZM416 (c/s NAPER60) being used to teach pilots how to fly at 600 ft. I assume they have the aircon switched on!
Another superb piece by Gill - how many intelligence historians could follow their paper at a conference with a turn?
My antidote to uniformly depressing news. With apologies to War, original performers of Low Rider that has become Spy Writer . . . www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQLP...
Spywriter
YouTube video by Gill's New Groove
www.youtube.com
May 12, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Another superb piece by Gill - how many intelligence historians could follow their paper at a conference with a turn?
An excellent thread!
May 8, 2025 at 7:59 PM
An excellent thread!
Excellent news that Bill Tutte is being commemorated on a VE-80 stamp. What a pity, however, that the Post Office doesn't seem to know that 'codebreak' isn't a verb and that codes and ciphers are different. If only there was a national agency that they could have approached for advice ... errr ...
April 25, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Excellent news that Bill Tutte is being commemorated on a VE-80 stamp. What a pity, however, that the Post Office doesn't seem to know that 'codebreak' isn't a verb and that codes and ciphers are different. If only there was a national agency that they could have approached for advice ... errr ...
I'm pleased to report that I asked the question that Daniel Shiu has answered in this article.
WW2 code-breaking & post-war maths: "the successful use of Bayesian statistics at [Bletchley Park] increased its use by postwar statisticians, supplanting the classical frequentist interpretation prevalent in the UK before the war" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The influence of Bletchley Park on UK mathematics
The Second World War saw a major influx of mathematical talent into the areas of cryptanalysis and cryptography. This was particularly true at the UK’s Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) at B...
www.tandfonline.com
April 14, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I'm pleased to report that I asked the question that Daniel Shiu has answered in this article.
From the other place.
April 12, 2025 at 9:15 AM
From the other place.
This is an excellent piece by Joe Devanny which spells out the extreme difficulties involved when an Inquiry has been asked to assess, not just how intelligence was acquired and assessed a quarter of a century ago, but how, at that time, without the benefit of hindsight,it should have been acted on.
There is huge expectation on the Omagh Bombing Inquiry but it faces a very difficult task of contextually complex, historical judgement.
Read our latest guest comment from @joedevanny.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/omag...
Read our latest guest comment from @joedevanny.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/omag...
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry faces very difficult historical challenges | Institute for Government
The Omagh Inquiry must make judgments about events of a quarter century ago.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
April 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM
This is an excellent piece by Joe Devanny which spells out the extreme difficulties involved when an Inquiry has been asked to assess, not just how intelligence was acquired and assessed a quarter of a century ago, but how, at that time, without the benefit of hindsight,it should have been acted on.
A really interesting edition of Código Crystal. An interview with former CNI Head Felix Sanz Roldán (in Spanish) about secrecy and transparency. He argues that a release and declassification legislation would increase trust in intelligence agencies.
www.rtve.es/play/audios/...
www.rtve.es/play/audios/...
April 6, 2025 at 5:10 PM
A really interesting edition of Código Crystal. An interview with former CNI Head Felix Sanz Roldán (in Spanish) about secrecy and transparency. He argues that a release and declassification legislation would increase trust in intelligence agencies.
www.rtve.es/play/audios/...
www.rtve.es/play/audios/...
A peacock butterfly on the blackthorn flowers, enjoying the sun and not thinking about tariffs at all.
April 3, 2025 at 10:20 AM
A peacock butterfly on the blackthorn flowers, enjoying the sun and not thinking about tariffs at all.
I know that this sort of thing - that somebody' conscience was troubling them enough about unpaid tax or whatever that they sent an anonymous or unidentifiable amount to the authorities - used to be relativey common. But was it only in South Africa that it made the Gazette?
April 2, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I know that this sort of thing - that somebody' conscience was troubling them enough about unpaid tax or whatever that they sent an anonymous or unidentifiable amount to the authorities - used to be relativey common. But was it only in South Africa that it made the Gazette?
Austerity was really hard in 1949: but there was a welcome mitigation for staff at GCHQ. See siginthistorian.blogspot.com for what happened.
March 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Austerity was really hard in 1949: but there was a welcome mitigation for staff at GCHQ. See siginthistorian.blogspot.com for what happened.
Reposted by Tony Comer
Words fail me, too, and, I suspect, many more of us.
Words fail me ...
Exclusive: Navajo Code Talkers disappear from military websites after Trump DEI order
March 17, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Words fail me, too, and, I suspect, many more of us.
'It is time to seek closure and move to fresh subjects.'
We should be so lucky … !
We should be so lucky … !
The beginning of the end for the Cambridge Five | Dan Lomas (@sandbaggerone.bsky.social)
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The beginning of the end for the Cambridge Five
The Cambridge Five have achieved a near-mythical status in the history of espionage. Yet their story is about a bygone age whose ideological struggles no longer resonate with the same urgency.
engelsbergideas.com
February 21, 2025 at 12:05 PM
'It is time to seek closure and move to fresh subjects.'
We should be so lucky … !
We should be so lucky … !
Is the earliest satirical novel about IA a heavily disguised satire on GCHQ as well? See my latest post on siginthistorian.com ...
February 8, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Is the earliest satirical novel about IA a heavily disguised satire on GCHQ as well? See my latest post on siginthistorian.com ...
This short thread points out really well some of the conceptual historical challenges the Omagh Inquiry faces.
Hearing first from the bereaved and survivors is a very moving and powerful way to start the public hearings of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry. Reading the inquiry’s terms of reference, I was struck by how historically challenging some of its judgements will be for the Inquiry to make.
January 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
This short thread points out really well some of the conceptual historical challenges the Omagh Inquiry faces.