ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in central London, not far from the Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament, is not famous for providing top cuisine in its canteen. It serves staple fare, from fish and chips to spaghetti bolognaise with the possibility of a glass of rosé to wash it down. These are hardly facts that need to be kept under lock and key, but until a few years ago, that is exactly how the MoD treated them – even the canteen menu, as an internal MoD publication, was a state secret. Governments in the West wielded an almost unassailable power. It was an action consistent with the unconstrained exercise of executive authority: a political system in which it was possible for the head of state to establish a team to break the law to protect not the state of France, but the political power and personal secrets of the French president.
