I know I am supposed to disapprove of ex-policeman Mark Kennedy, aka Mark Stone. It is a bit mean to go undercover with a group of nice, slightly unworldly, idealists, so that you can spy on them and report them to the powers-that-be. That bit is just not right.
If you missed the story, Mark Kennedy, a British cop spent seven months under-cover with a group of environmental activists and got involved in jaunts such as chaining himself to a nuclear power station in Hartlepool and climbing a crane in Didcot.
There is something about lanky, much tattooed, multi-pierced, long-haired, clean driving-licensed Mark that must have endeared him to his fellow environmentalists and I suspect it was more than just his handy skills as a driver of protesting students to demonstrations.
By the sound of it, Mark (or whatever his real, real name is) sounds like he got won over by the “cause” and turned out to be one of the nice guys after all.
He has gone to live abroad I think but I don’t know where. I hope he has chosen his new location carefully now that we know how he can be so easily won over. I would be disappointed to find out that he has just turned into a North Korean nuclear physicist or a Columbian drug-dealer. I guess though, when you are good at submerging your identity, anything is possible. He might even stay a nice guy and end up as Benedictine monk or a Thai lady-boy.
Good luck to you Mark – stay on the side of the angels.
I do, however, wonder how many other nice guys are really policemen reporting back to their bosses about all our little habits. Let’s be careful about our friends.