> ..................................... I always got the impression that
> his style was a problem for Whitehall only when he screwed up - otherwise his
> superiors, despite their eye rolling and obligatory protests, looked the
> other way.
Indeed, sometimes one got the feeling they *liked* having a
'cowboy' around who would do what 'needed to be done' without necessarily
having the official imprimature, allowing them some sort of deniability.
Having come, over the course of the series, to thing of Neil as a
sympathetic (albeit not particularly likeable!) character, I was terribly
taken aback to realise that, at the end of the day, he was more like
Oliver North than anyone else I could think of in contemporary 'real
life'.
Eewwwww.
(YMMV!)
/// Agnes Tomorrow /// agnest@u.washington.edu ///
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from
the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent
disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams, _Last_Chance_To_See_