James Bond ball for MI6 officers

14/05/2009

MI6 officers are to get a taste of James Bond’s lifestyle later this year when they will attend a gala ball to celebrate the organisation’s 100 year anniversary.

The black tie event will be attended by several hundred MI6 officers and their spouses. According to the Financial Times, the inclusion of spouses is “in order to ensure that MI6’s predominantly male staff have someone to dance with.”

Like the rest of MI6’s operations, details of the event are being kept under wraps, but some nuggets of information have emerged from the Secret Intelligence Service’s headquarters in Vauxhall, London.

One such details is that MI6 officers will be responsible for buying their own tickets to the event – something that would be unlikely to impress James Bond.

MI6 was founded in October 1909, partly prompted by the government’s concern about Germany’s military and naval expansion. 100 years on, MI6 claims its goal is to help the government combat “regional instability, terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and illegal narcotics”.

But never mind all that serious stuff, says the FT. “What about the ball? ... Surely there will be vodka martinis, roulette tables, a car park full of Aston Martins?”