This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Tom Fowler [Bluesky/X]. Tom is the host of the SpyCops podcast, which is dedicated to documenting the progress of the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) in the UK, announced by then Home Secretary Theresa May in March 2015, begun in July of that year, and now in its eleventh year of very slowly exploring 40+ years of undercover police spying on political activists.
Since May 1968, thousands of people have been targeted by the UK secret police in what has been dubbed ‘the spycops scandal’.
Undercover police officers stole the identities of dead children. Infiltrating campaign groups in the name of averting ‘subversion’ and ‘public disorder’. They targeted grieving families of those killed in racist attacks demanding justice – like Stephen Lawrence’s parents, activists opposing war, fascism and inequality, and all kinds of ordinary people campaigning for a better society.
The latest spycop to appear before the Undercover Policing Inquiry — UCPI Evidence Hearings | Tranche 3 (Phase 2) | Day 4 – (09 February 2026) – PM — is Jim Boyling who, between 1995 and 2000, ‘infiltrated many groups including Essex Hunt Saboteurs, Earth First! And Reclaim the Streets’; recent subjects of the Inquiry have included Carlo Soracchi (Police spy tried to incite activists to firebomb shop, UK inquiry hears, Rob Evans, The Guardian, February 3, 2026) and Mark Jenner (Undercover officer admits deceiving woman into five-year relationship, Rob Evans, The Guardian December 18, 2025).
See also : Reforming The ‘CHIS’ Act / Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act (March 2021) /// Deep Deception: The story of the spycop network, by the women who uncovered the shocking truth, Helen Steel, Rosa, Alison, Lisa, Naomi, Belinda (Penguin, 2025) | Teh Grauniad on Spycops Scandal /// SpycopsResearch • Police Spies Out of Lives • Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance • The Network for Police Monitoring.
4.30pm, February 12, 2026 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus, podcats.
• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.
