MI5 is putting its ageing spies out to pasture and recruiting younger, computer-savvy individuals as replacements in an attempt to keep up to date with modern life.
Many of the older, more traditional spies are finding it difficult to cope with modern computer life and find it hard to understand the world of Twitter and Facebook…as do many!
MI5 currently has around 3,500 staff and this is set to rise to 4,100 by next year, almost double the size it was in 2001. There will be redundancies, both voluntary and otherwise, and lay-offs as the service tries to recruit people with more deployable skills.
So, the new James Bond will be able to gossip on Twitter, build up a circle of friends on Facebook and complete his expense report on a spreadsheet, but what will happen when he meets a foe in ‘real life’? Will they try to shoot each other or exchange email addresses?