Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chair of the intelligence and security committee, says that most of what has been revealed by WikiLeaks will ‘irritate rather than alarm’ governments. But he says that leaders must be allowed ‘private and secret dialogue’, in order to resolve ‘some of the most difficult problems the world has known’. He points to the difference between ‘the public interest’ and ‘the public are interested’ and says that in the case of genuince secrets, real damage of a serious kind will be done.