Words, By George!

British media report that the former MI6 officer responsible for producing a dossier making lurid allegations about Donald Trump is “terrified for his safety” after he was publicly named in the US.

Christopher Steele, 52, fled from his home in Surrey on Wednesday morning after finding out his name was about to become public knowledge, UK newspaper The Telegraph reports.

The newspaper quoted a source close to Mr Steele as saying on Thursday AEST that he now fears a prompt and potentially dangerous backlash against him from Moscow.

Mr Steele, the co-founder of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence, was named as the man who prepared a 35-page dossier that alleges Russia colluded with Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and that the country’s security services have material that could be used to blackmail him.

Among the unsubstantiated intelligence reports are claims of irregular sexual acts perpetrated by the President-elect in Moscow.

The Telegraph quoted a source close to Mr Steele as saying the former spy was “horrified” when his nationality was published and is now “terrified for his and his family’s safety”. 

Mr Trump earlier used his first official media conference since the US election to blasted the release of the report,calling it “nonsense maybe released by US intelligence agencies”.

“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out there,” Mr Trump told a chaotic news conference only days before he takes office.

“It was a group of opponents who got together, sick people, who put that out.”

Orbis describes itself as being able to “provide strategic advice, mount intelligence-gathering operations and conduct complex, often cross-border investigations”.

According to its website, the company was founded in 2009 by former British intelligence professionals and utilises a “global network” of experts and “prominent business figures”.

Mr Steele’s fellow director at Orbis, Christopher Burrows, refused to “confirm or deny” to media that his company had produced the report.

The Wall Street Journal claims that Mr Steele repeatedly declined requests for interviews in recent weeks, with an intermediary telling the newspaper the subject was “too hot”.

A neighbour of Mr Steele told the Wall Street Journal he was away for a few days.

The Telegraph reported that Mr Steele hurriedly packed his bags and went to ground “hours before his name was published on Wednesday”.

It said Mr Steele spied in Moscow for the Secret Intelligence Service in the 1990s.

“For months, he had been playing a dangerous game; tipping off journalists about what he said he had discovered from his sources in Russia about Donald Trump’s alleged dealings with the Kremlin, as well as claims that the FSB had hugely compromising information about Mr Trump’s activities during visits to the Communist country,” The Telegraph reported.  

Mr Steele had been hired by a Washington firm to gather information on Mr Trump’s connections to Russia, funded at first by anti-Trump Republicans and, later, by Democrats. He also reportedly shared the information with the Russian security service, the KGB.

The existence of the dossier is thought to have been common knowledge among journalists in the US for more than six months, but was only given credence when CNN reported that Mr Trump and President Barack Obama had been given a two-page summary of its contents by the FBI. 

Mr Steele worked as an expert on Russia for 20 years during his time at MI6, and was sent to Moscow as a spy in 1990, The Telegraph reported.

The New York Times quoted US intelligence as saying Mr Steele is “considered a competent and reliable operative with extensive experience in Russia”.

As the world marked the three-year anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 on Wednesday, Western Australian researchers claim to know the location of the crash site.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon faces an uphill battle to succeed in her push for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom before Brexit is triggered.

On Monday night (AEDT) Ms Sturgeon demanded a new Scottish independence referendum be held in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union are clear.

“If Scotland is to have a real choice – when the terms of Brexit are known but before it is too late to choose our own course – then that choice must be offered between the autumn of next year, 2018, and the spring of 2019,” Ms Sturgeon, who heads Scotland’s pro-independence devolved government, told reporters on Monday.

The prospect of an independence vote in Scotland that could rip apart the United Kingdom just months before an EU exit would add a tumultuous twist to Brexit with uncertain consequences for the world’s fifth-largest economy.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the two-year process of taking the country out of the EU, something which was opposed by most Scots in last year’s Brexit vote.

A second Scottish independence referendum would be divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty at the worst possible time for Britain, a spokesman for May said on Monday.

“Only a little over two years ago people in Scotland voted decisively to remain part of our United Kingdom in a referendum which the Scottish Government defined as a ‘once in a generation’ vote,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“The evidence clearly shows that a majority of people in Scotland do not want a second independence referendum. Another referendum would be divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty at the worst possible time.”

The Guardian reported opinion polls showed less than 40 per cent of Scottish voters wanted a referendum before Brexit.

The British government used these polls to support its position that Ms Sturgeon did not have mandate for another referendum.

Scotland’s conservative leader Ruth Davidson said Ms Sturgeon had “given up” as being the nation’s First Minister for “all of Scotland”.

“The first minister’s proposal offers Scotland the worst of all worlds. Her timetable would force people to vote blind on the biggest political decision a country could face. This is utterly irresponsible and has been taken by the first minister purely for partisan political reasons,” Ms Davidson said.

Scottish Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Tories all said they would oppose having another referendum.

Ms Sturgeon has called for Scotland to be allowed to strike its own deal with the EU but on Monday she said her efforts had hit a “brick wall” in London.

The results of the June 23 Brexit referendum called the future of the UK into question because England and Wales voted to leave the EU but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.

Sterling currency rose after Ms Sturgeon said the earliest date for a new Scottish independence referendum was in the autumn of next year. British government bond prices fell.

Scots rejected independence by 55-45 per cent in a referendum in September 2014, though the vote energised Scottish politics and support for Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) has surged since then.

The value of these referenda (Scottish Independence 55%-45%, and Brexit 52%-48%) has to be questioned.  For these polls to be take seriously, a result of 65% for the poll must be considered as a minimum.

The Scottish leader cannot trigger a referendum without first gaining the support of the Scottish Parliament, then seek the permission of UK Government via a ‘Section 30’ order which must be approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.