Even though FT Weekend never fails to annoy, the August 9/10 2025 issue managed the usual from an unusual place, an obituary. In describing Stella Rimington’s career progression, the writer Helen Warrell first chose the title “First woman to lead Britain’s security agency MI5”, which does something that most professional organisations declare to not do, define employees by gender, race or religion. Stella Rimington must have been an outstanding professional, given that her rise to the MI5 chief position happened at the time when the Soviet Union lost the cold war, its many colonies and fell apart.
What irked me apart from the title was the following passage: “In 1986 she was promoted to the role of “K”, head of counter-espionage – a higher rank than any other woman in the agency, and a move that provoked disgruntled “mutterings” in the men’s toilets”.
I would be thrilled to know how Helen Warrell came into possession of such critical intelligence and who her sources were in those toilets.
It would appear that a great person’s passing is an event that may inspire a celebration of their achievements rather than provide a cheap reason to build an agenda for a cause a journalist wants to promote, even if it was one that the deceased denied being ardent about – Ms Warrell does mention that <Stella Rimington> “denied in an interview with the FT that she had ever been an “aggressive feminist”.
Garry Goldman Random Angle 