I know I'm expected to be shocked and horrified at the revelation that the UK spied on its allies at the two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 (Reports, 17 June) – and in many ways of course I am. But I have to admit to a more complex reaction as well. I found it strangely, almost childishly pleasing that our intelligence services have been able to mount such a sophisticated operation, evidently at the cutting edge of such things. It was even more gratifying to see that, for once, when we discover what is "really" going on behind the scenes, we find the spooks have been piling enthusiastically behind an entirely democratic and progressive project.
The Spycatcher revelations in the 1980s showed the intelligence services set on undermining Harold Wilson's Labour governments. So it comes as a pleasant surprise to see GCHQ getting so strongly behind Gordon Brown's key G20 aims of co-ordinating global economic recovery and reforming international financial institutions. Brown's role in promoting the $1tn stimulus package was critical in staving off global economic catastrophe and it seems that some of the credit for that success should go to the intelligence community, cast in the surprising role as secret promoters of Keynesian economics. Of course none of this should detract from the importance of the Guardian's revelations or the need for a full debate about how intelligence gathering can be held accountable in a democratic society.
Giles Oakley
London
• Congratulations on continuing the spy disclosures, with your latest issue illustrated with some of Menwith's radomes. So at last that name is mentioned. We congratulate the courageous whistleblower, Edward Snowden, but why is it that the courageous campaigning by women who cut their way into the base and came out with proof of what this base was doing did not get this kind of coverage? How can we call ourselves a democracy when the efforts by our own citizens for decades – women who camped through all seasons outside this US base on British soil – did not rattle the House of Commons? This base monitors the whole of the northern hemisphere and therefore has always had access to US citizens. We still need campaigners who put their feet on the ground in addition to using the internet.
Anna Cheetham and Caroline Moles
Leicester CND
• Why did I feel afraid for the Guardian staff who provided this information – also for the Guardian itself for publishing it? The UK is supposed to be a free democracy, isn't it? I also feel afraid for Edward Snowden and the other whistleblowers in the US. What is going to happen to them? Once we were told that the UK was a land of the free, but it is no longer true, is it?
Joyce Morgan
London
• I'm very amused by your front-page story. I always work on the assumption that if I am doing my dissenter's job properly, there's a possibility that someone could be monitoring me. It's good to imagine the apoplexy induced in those who thought they were the ones doing the spying. Maybe they'll now have to resort to carrier pigeons.
Caroline Westgate
Hexham, Northumberland