From the head of MI6 stirring tales of undercover work in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Sir John Scarlett told of clandestine meetings in a Moscow flat where he and his nervous mole exchanged information, with the sweat pouring from their brows — Scarlett, it seems, had turned the hot tap on to prevent the conversation being bugged.

So does this remarkable breach of intelligence tradition suggest that finally, finally, the secret service doors are being thrown open and our spies are being allowed to shed light on the clandestine operations that cost us so many billions?

Don’t you believe it. Barely 24 hours later, Andrew Dismore, MP, chairman of the Joint Human Rights Committee investigating allegations of Britain’s involvement in the rendition and torture of terrorism suspects, reveals that he and his committee have been unable to get to the facts because none of the key players would give evidence. Neither Foreign nor Home Secretary, far less the Director-General of MI5, had agreed to give evidence on what was known about these sinister flights or their consequences.

What sticks in the throat is not just the suggestion that we should have been complicit in such shoddy and disreputable operations, but the hypocrisy to which ministers resort in defending their refusal to testify. My skin crawled as I listened to the Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis talking robustly about how “seriously” he takes the issue of torture, then adding, almost in the same breath, that we “have to co-operate” with foreign intelligence agencies and, on the key question of whether Britain was “complicit” in such activities: “I don’t believe it is accurate to say we are complicit.”

Why not just a “no”? Or even — braver still — a “yes”? Would an honest answer threaten our national security? Mr Dismore says we need a full inquiry. The truth is, we need rather more than that. We need a secret service that is accountable to the public, a select committee with the power to call ministers and senior officers — and the bond of trust between Intelligence and the public that might be the outcome.

You think it is impossible? Let me quote the new head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, giving evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on his appintment: “There is a great deal the public cannot be told about CIA operations without revealing the same information to those who would do us harm,” he said. “And so, the CIA confides in you [the committee] — and counts on you — to provide the oversight that the public cannot.”

The day that Sir John Scarlett feels able to say that out loud will be a better day for all of us.

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