<story><title>The Spy Who Loved Me: An undercover surveillance operation that went too far</title><url>http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/the-spy-who-loved-me-2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mortov</author><text>North Americans are probably astonished at what is &amp;#x27;permitted&amp;#x27; for UK police to become involved in - there are no constitutional protections and no effective oversight and there never has been in the UK.  Even today the Police actively obstruct and frustrate attempts to bring effective controls and oversight of their activities which can be in clear and blatant breach of what limited legislation exists.&lt;p&gt;This (and other related) stories rolls on with only a few days ago the Metropolitan police in London being forced by a court order to admit the identities of two officers - Jim Boyling and Bob Lambert [who the referenced article is about] - who fathered children (then disappeared leaving the mothers and babies to fend for themselves).  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/15/metropolitan-police-forced-to-name-undercover-officers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;uk-news&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;aug&amp;#x2F;15&amp;#x2F;metropolitan-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The Spy Who Loved Me: An undercover surveillance operation that went too far</title><url>http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/the-spy-who-loved-me-2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>junto</author><text>Interesting article. I hope that the families affected by this Met Police massive error of judgement find a way to get peace in their lives.&lt;p&gt;I imagine that many are deeply hurt by the actions of these undercover police officers. This lady was obviously deeply emotionally scarred by her failed marriage to this man.&lt;p&gt;I also feel some sympathy for the officers involved. The police are a brainwashing operation on young impressionable minds. In many ways they are also victims of the state.&lt;p&gt;It is likely that those responsible for the decisions that led to this happening are long since retired and nothing will happen to them, but it must lead to safe-guards to make sure it doesn&amp;#x27;t happen again.</text></comment>