Notes & Queries: Would MI5 have actually a file back at my staunch communist grandfather? | MI5 |

My dad, which died 12 years back, was a strong trade unionist and an energetic member of the Communist party for half a century. Would
MI5
have actually kept a file on him? In that case, could I find it?

It is easier if there is a revolution. If the guy ever before went to eastern Germany, the
Stasi
would have had a document on him. It is now easy for anybody who thinks they may have already been the subject
of Stasi interest
to apply to the federal administrator for Stasi files (BStU) to read the document, or get photocopies. Near relatives of a deceased individual could also generate
a software
.

Christopher Skillen, Glasgow

If personal situation is anything to go by, the clear answer isundoubtedly certainly. As a former scrupulous objector and only
Frequent Worker
audience, I was told your neighborhood special branch policeman had expected my company for my personal destination whenever I kept my personal task as a junior medical center medical practitioner in 1967. During
the miners’ strike of 1984-5
my personal phone in Sheffield was actually bugged (its a long tale) plus in the 90s I finally asked my MP to inquire about home secretary to state if there was clearly a document on myself or perhaps not: needless to say, “national protection” obliged Ken Clarke to decline to answer.

Simon Barley, Bradwell, Derbys

Our very own minister accountable for
ASIO
(Australian Continent’s MI5) for the mid-70s is reputed having said, when expected equivalent question: “they are doing today.”

Ian Patterson, Croydon Park, NSW, Australia

Can there be any proof your medieval exercise of placing wrongdoers when you look at the shares and putting rotten meals at them worked as a discouraging factor to crime?

According to modern scientific studies of offenders, the main discouraging factor which in fact works may be the imagined potential for obtaining caught. In medieval community, we realized everybody else these were more likely to fulfill, had couple of assets, and had a pretty good clear idea what their own neighbours were up to and the things they had. This made criminal activities against property (such theft) or against the individual (instance brawling) easy to identify. Criminal activities like offering poor goods, for which the shares had been in addition used, had been rather easy to identify as well.

We should just remember that , many individuals put in the shares in the centre many years were additionally designated in some way – branded, or burned from the hand,or (just like
William Prynne
, who was stocked for posting an attack throughout the Archbishop of Canterbury), having their particular ears block. This was probably a deterrent, because the individual had a permanent obvious signal that he / she was an offender, and could anticipate to end up being addressed a lot more harshly next time.

Besides these types of offences, intimate “criminal activities” like fornication and adultery happened to be penalized using the shares, which intended in essence a routine public shaming of the individual alarmed (typically compounded by whipping, parading all over area, and quite often ducking). It was a chance for the community expressing its disapproval: many of the recognized killings of individuals inside shares had been of males accused of sodomy.

It’s difficult to know what sort of deterrent this was to the people concerned, but it may very well have experienced a great influence on people enjoying.

thebluecatbabe

Precisely what do couples who have been collectively quite a few years mention if they continue holiday collectively?

After 22 numerous years of matrimony, myself and Mrs Dreddful sometimes chat on christmas regarding folks we realize who got together together with young ones young following slowly became apart while getting the youngsters upwards, until they’ve achieved the point where the youngsters have become up and they instantly realise they’ve got nothing in accordance and that can hardly stay the sight of each various other, aside from love both. Can whether or not the canines tend to be lacking all of us.

JudgeDreddful

After 47 years of wedding, we however select plenty to share. Yesterday our very own talk, caused by a fantastic dinner and suitable levels of drink, ranged over topics including physics – just how conduction, convection and radiation might impact the warmth of our own resting case; location – how my personal bad routing had delivered us down a cul-de-sac in Marple; politics – whether as Lib Dems we might fairly maintain Brighton; and intercourse. Unfortunately at that time the two of us fell asleep.

Richard Carden, Harleston, Norfolk

Any solutions?

Silkworms seem to have cornered an industry. Can there be any possible industrial utilize for crawlers’ webs?

J Williams, Lincoln

Performed cowboys have US accents? Since they were merely not too long ago established in America from Britain, should Hollywood consider more Colin Firth than Clint Eastwood?

Rebecca Give, Manchester