Dr. Dan Lomas
@sandbaggerone.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham. Writes on 🇬🇧 intelligence.
Remains an opinionated Northerner & Mancunian. ✍ Vetting, 'Friends' & UK intelligence 📚 🇺🇦 Views my own.
🔗 https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/people/daniel.lomas
Remains an opinionated Northerner & Mancunian. ✍ Vetting, 'Friends' & UK intelligence 📚 🇺🇦 Views my own.
🔗 https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/people/daniel.lomas
"I hear you're a vetting expert now, Father!"
February 4, 2026 at 9:26 AM
"I hear you're a vetting expert now, Father!"
SOE's advice on disguising yourself as a student in 1944.
These days it'd be mullet, naff moustache and overly baggy trousers.
These days it'd be mullet, naff moustache and overly baggy trousers.
January 30, 2026 at 12:35 PM
SOE's advice on disguising yourself as a student in 1944.
These days it'd be mullet, naff moustache and overly baggy trousers.
These days it'd be mullet, naff moustache and overly baggy trousers.
🎬 Watched the film "Number 24", a Netflix film on the wartime career of Norwegian resistance leader Gunnar Sønsteby. Excellent depiction of life under occupation in #WW2, the issue of collaboration/resistance and the wartime legacy - plus there's a Radiohead track, too.
January 25, 2026 at 11:01 AM
🎬 Watched the film "Number 24", a Netflix film on the wartime career of Norwegian resistance leader Gunnar Sønsteby. Excellent depiction of life under occupation in #WW2, the issue of collaboration/resistance and the wartime legacy - plus there's a Radiohead track, too.
🎶 This academic stuff leads me to some interesting places ...
January 20, 2026 at 3:47 PM
🎶 This academic stuff leads me to some interesting places ...
Harking back to a time when US-Danish relations aligned 😉
January 19, 2026 at 11:07 AM
Harking back to a time when US-Danish relations aligned 😉
👀 Agent reporting (known as a CX) from Sir Paul Dukes, codenamed ST 25, and the only SIS agent to be knighted for his services in Russia, from January 1919. Dukes was an important agent on Bolshevik political and military affairs, who later wrote about his experiences.
January 16, 2026 at 12:06 PM
👀 Agent reporting (known as a CX) from Sir Paul Dukes, codenamed ST 25, and the only SIS agent to be knighted for his services in Russia, from January 1919. Dukes was an important agent on Bolshevik political and military affairs, who later wrote about his experiences.
The Conservative Party now ...
January 15, 2026 at 4:21 PM
The Conservative Party now ...
Erm, it's called GCHQ
January 14, 2026 at 10:06 PM
Erm, it's called GCHQ
Richard, you ok hun?
January 9, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Richard, you ok hun?
📚 My review of Mark Lowenthal's excellent study of the US intelligence community, Vigilance Is Not Enough, is available in the @iajournal.bsky.social journal.
A comprehensive study of the the development of US intelligence - well worth a read.
🔗 academic.oup.com/ia/article-a...
A comprehensive study of the the development of US intelligence - well worth a read.
🔗 academic.oup.com/ia/article-a...
January 8, 2026 at 5:32 PM
📚 My review of Mark Lowenthal's excellent study of the US intelligence community, Vigilance Is Not Enough, is available in the @iajournal.bsky.social journal.
A comprehensive study of the the development of US intelligence - well worth a read.
🔗 academic.oup.com/ia/article-a...
A comprehensive study of the the development of US intelligence - well worth a read.
🔗 academic.oup.com/ia/article-a...
New year, new article 👀
‘clogged by masses of paperwork’: Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/#MI6), Whitehall and the early Cold War, 1949–56
The article tells the story of SIS's early Cold War struggles against the SovBloc
🆓️ to read and Open Access ⏬️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘clogged by masses of paperwork’: Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/#MI6), Whitehall and the early Cold War, 1949–56
The article tells the story of SIS's early Cold War struggles against the SovBloc
🆓️ to read and Open Access ⏬️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
January 5, 2026 at 9:46 AM
New year, new article 👀
‘clogged by masses of paperwork’: Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/#MI6), Whitehall and the early Cold War, 1949–56
The article tells the story of SIS's early Cold War struggles against the SovBloc
🆓️ to read and Open Access ⏬️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘clogged by masses of paperwork’: Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/#MI6), Whitehall and the early Cold War, 1949–56
The article tells the story of SIS's early Cold War struggles against the SovBloc
🆓️ to read and Open Access ⏬️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
"The sentries report crap insights - thousands of 'em".
January 3, 2026 at 9:17 PM
"The sentries report crap insights - thousands of 'em".
Krüger's information includes drawings, in this case an image of the battleship Bayern that was commissioned in July 1916, drawn by Krüger when she was in drydock and ready to be painted at Howaldtswerke shipyard, Kiel, in Spring 1916.
December 30, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Krüger's information includes drawings, in this case an image of the battleship Bayern that was commissioned in July 1916, drawn by Krüger when she was in drydock and ready to be painted at Howaldtswerke shipyard, Kiel, in Spring 1916.
👀 Reporting from one of SIS's longest serving agents, Karl Krüger, codenamed T/16 or TR/16. Krüger was a walk-in and run from Rotterdam, initially by Richard Tinsley, giving vital naval intelligence up to 1939 when he failed to meet his controller and was "presumed dead".
December 30, 2025 at 12:16 PM
👀 Reporting from one of SIS's longest serving agents, Karl Krüger, codenamed T/16 or TR/16. Krüger was a walk-in and run from Rotterdam, initially by Richard Tinsley, giving vital naval intelligence up to 1939 when he failed to meet his controller and was "presumed dead".
📚 New reading ...
December 27, 2025 at 8:02 PM
📚 New reading ...
Me seeing battleships back on the agenda
December 23, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Me seeing battleships back on the agenda
👀 Brilliant temporary exhibition "Spies, Lies & Deception" at Imperial War Museum North, highlighting the history of SOE, MI5 and SIS. Really well curated and full of gadgets and spy paraphernalia.
December 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
👀 Brilliant temporary exhibition "Spies, Lies & Deception" at Imperial War Museum North, highlighting the history of SOE, MI5 and SIS. Really well curated and full of gadgets and spy paraphernalia.
The entry also shows something more interesting than Cumming's Christmas message.
Here we see Vernon Kell (head of MI5) meeting "C" who "suggests sending an officer to his office as liaison" though Cumming could not "quite see what he has to do".
Here we see Vernon Kell (head of MI5) meeting "C" who "suggests sending an officer to his office as liaison" though Cumming could not "quite see what he has to do".
December 19, 2025 at 11:19 AM
The entry also shows something more interesting than Cumming's Christmas message.
Here we see Vernon Kell (head of MI5) meeting "C" who "suggests sending an officer to his office as liaison" though Cumming could not "quite see what he has to do".
Here we see Vernon Kell (head of MI5) meeting "C" who "suggests sending an officer to his office as liaison" though Cumming could not "quite see what he has to do".
👀 New SIS Instagram post featuring Mansfield Cumming's diary.
Significant extracts of the diary appear in Alan Judd's excellent "Quest for C", published in 1999, and the service's authorised history by Keith Jeffery in 2010.
Significant extracts of the diary appear in Alan Judd's excellent "Quest for C", published in 1999, and the service's authorised history by Keith Jeffery in 2010.
December 19, 2025 at 10:47 AM
👀 New SIS Instagram post featuring Mansfield Cumming's diary.
Significant extracts of the diary appear in Alan Judd's excellent "Quest for C", published in 1999, and the service's authorised history by Keith Jeffery in 2010.
Significant extracts of the diary appear in Alan Judd's excellent "Quest for C", published in 1999, and the service's authorised history by Keith Jeffery in 2010.
"I hear you're a Special Operations Executive expert now, Father!"
December 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
"I hear you're a Special Operations Executive expert now, Father!"
👀 Organisation of MI1(c)'s (MI6's) most productive train watching network in the First World War, La Dame Blanche (the White Lady), run via Rotterdam by Henry Landau. It was the "finest espionage organisation" offering material of "priceless value", Landau recalls.
December 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
👀 Organisation of MI1(c)'s (MI6's) most productive train watching network in the First World War, La Dame Blanche (the White Lady), run via Rotterdam by Henry Landau. It was the "finest espionage organisation" offering material of "priceless value", Landau recalls.
End of term vibes ...
December 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
End of term vibes ...
Well, UK higher education might be in a sh*t place but at least there's free books 📚
December 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Well, UK higher education might be in a sh*t place but at least there's free books 📚