Donnie Brasco in sandals.

            That's the thumb he puts up your arse to kick-off the cavity search.

Over the past year or so, I've struggled to engage with current affairs.  The News had become one them boring but necessary things, like shaving. But just when i thought I'd lose interest forever, a corker like this one pops up.

You probably recognise the bloke in the picture.  He's PC Mark Kennedy.  He doesn't look like a copper, but then that's kind of the point.  He spent seven years infiltrating the activist community on behalf of the Police.

Or did he?  New evidence suggests he may have also been using his false identity to spy on protesters on behalf of a private security interests.  He may have even benefited from these interests long after he decided to leave the force.

So what is he?  Copper?  Businessman?  Agent provocateur?  All of the above.  The portrait painted of him is fractured and inconsistent.  He's the ideal subject for a labyrinthine blockbuster.  It looks as though he will be sometime soon.

Regrettably, I'd be hugely surprised if any films derived from this story tackle the other big issue arising from it:  The question of the ethics of investigating protest groups.  There are questions to be raised about what qualifies an organisation to be fit for undercover investigation.  Sure, environmental protest groups occasionally break stuff and interrupt the nation's infrastructure to put their point across, but is it really necessary to spend millions nosying into their activities?  Is it even remotely ethical?  Undercover policing by its very nature lacks the transparency we would usually expect of criminal investigation, but sometimes it's needed to bring down a monster.  It's a necessary evil.

But when you're dealing with environmental groups, it seems fairly obvious that this isn't necessary.  So it's just evil.  Undercover officers should be bringing down gangsters and terrorists, not vegetarians.

With chatter stirring that the student protest movement might be enjoying a rebirth, perhaps we'll see officers stocking donning Converse trainers and hanging around campuses.  That lad sat opposite you in the pub - that's right, the scrawny, bedraggled one in the overcoat supping at a pint of snakebite - you'd better watch him.  I hear his arrest record is huge.