Stella Rimington, who recently became Edinburgh University's alumna of the year, claimed in her acceptance speech that she had never planned her career, and certainly never thought that she would join MI5, let alone end up as its director general. But the signs were there for the men with the dark glasses and the turned-up collars: while she was an Edinburgh student, Mrs Rimington took part in a demo protesting against a visit by the then Soviet leaders Bulganin and Khrushchev, carrying a placard which read: "Bulge and Krush go home".