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GCHQ: past and present

01 March 1992

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The last Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, said in 1984 that: "There is an inherent conflict between the structure of trade unions and loyalty to the state". Eight years ago the government decided to ban trade unions at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham. A new book "A conflict of loyalties" by Hugh Lanning and Richard Norton-Taylor (New Clarion Press, 230 pages) tells a story that needs to be recorded of the ban and the union fightback.

By chance a "secret" document released in the Public Records Office in January sets out the original purpose of GCHQ in 1960. Its two jobs were defined as Communications Security (COMSEC) to secure UK communications and those of its allies, and Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). SIGINT being set out as: "the analysis and where possible the reduction of the security of other government's communications". It goes on to note that the relationship of communicator and interceptor is non-cooperative and thus requiring sophisticated and expensive technology.

Public Records Office, WO/95/14887 (uncovered by Rob Evans of the Campaign Against Military Research on Campus).

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