But what are spies for?

One of these really mind boggling ideas turns up in the newspapers today.
MI5 and MI6 could be forced to share their intelligence with the rest of Europe under new proposals from the EU.

The piece goes on to explain at least some of the reasons why this might not be all that wise. We already share a lot with the Yanks, who would be less than pleased to see what they collect being shared with certain other EU states. There have also been times when material collected has been shared with people we really don't want it to be as a result of (say, for example, French) political and diplomatic manouvres.

But the real objection perhaps can't be revealed in a family newspaper (while we sophisticates can discuss it). A large amount of our varied spying efforts go on trying to work out what the other EU countries are doing. Just because we share a political structure with them doesn't mean that anyone is naive enough to think that all of our interests are aligned all of the time.

Sharing the information you've got with the people you're actually spying on really doesn't sound all that wise.

Another way of putting this: what's an intelligence service for is it isn't to tell us what the Frogs and the Krauts are up to?