The Times editor James Harding was approached to join top-secret spy ring MI5 while at Cambridge University, he told a London meeting this week. He was ready to sign on the dotted line, according to the Daily Mail's Ephraim Hardcastle, but soon realised that he "didn't want to lead a life of secrecy". Quite, Harding knows all too well the dangers of secrecy. What is NightJack doing these days, we wonder?
• Footnote added on 27 July 2011. James Harding has contacted the Guardian to deny the Ephraim Hardcastle story.
