Agent Provocateur

Sadly we are not talking here about the delectable Kylie Minogue, but a particular type of unsavoury political operator who pretends to share the aims of a political party or movement. If only some of these people shared the physical attributes of Kylie some of their activities would be of passing interest, but most are driven by ego or money.

There seems to be the same group of people involved in this activity with the same names cropping up, this information is now being shared amongst opposition groups thankfully.

For those not familiar with the term -

‘While the practice was worldwide in antiquity, modern undercover operations were scaled up in France by Eugène François Vidocq in the early 19th century, and included the use of unlawful tactics against opponents. Later in the same century, police targets included union activists who came to fear plain-clothed policemen (agent de police in French). The French term agent provocateur was then borrowed as-is into English and German. In accordance with French grammar, the correct plural form of the term is agents provocateurs.

Prevention of infiltration by agents provocateurs is part of the duty of demonstration marshals, also called stewards, deployed by organizers of large or controversial assemblies.

An agent provocateur may be a police officer or a secret agent of police who encourages suspects to carry out a crime under conditions where evidence can be obtained; or who suggests the commission of a crime to another, in hopes they will go along with the suggestion and be convicted of the crime.

A political organization or government may use agents provocateurs against political opponents. The provocateurs try to incite the opponent to do counter-productive or ineffective acts to foster public disdain or provide a pretext for the final assault against the opponent.’

Source Wikipedia

These people were agents of government opposed to the Six Acts of 1816 , they disrupted the largest opposition group , the Chartists leaving false names on the great petition in order to discredit a movement dedicated to the extension of the franchise and reform of Parliament in the mid nineteen century.

Infiltration was most recently given publicity in 2012...

Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal.

In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.

Guardian 20th January 2012

Ten years later...

Scotland Yard has apologised and paid substantial compensation to a man who was fathered by an undercover police officer who formed a long-term relationship with his mother in the 1980s in order to spy on political campaigners.

The Metropolitan police has been compelled to pay the confidential sum after the man said in a lawsuit that he suffered psychiatric damage after discovering, at the age of 26, that his father was not the committed leftwing protester he had been led to believe.

Robert Lambert, commonly known as Bob Lambert and sometimes styled Dr Robert Lambert MBE, born February or March 1952, is a former Metropolitan Police officer turned academic.

A long-serving officer with the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, Lambert was a key member of its secretive Special Demonstration Squad. He served both as an undercover officer - using the false identity ‘Bob Robinson’ to infiltrate the environmental and animal rights protest movement in the 1980s - and then later as an influential manager of the unit in the 1990s.

Please note that this man was awarded the MBE for his ‘services’

The Stasi used similar tactics in the DDR, all exposed when the Regime collapsed and files were opened.

So as we enter a new age of repression, with the economy tanking and the cost of living going through the roof, government will deploy these people to disrupt opposition to greater effect.

Andrew Withers FRSA