Article: Street that moulded/a nation; Tales of duplicity on Downing Street will outdo any contemporary scandal, writes Colin Brown.(Dispatches)

It'll be small consolation to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but the secrecy, smears and sleaze that have dogged his government in recent months have been part of the fabric of Whitehall for five centuries.

Take, for example, the treachery of the man who gave his name to Downing Street.

Sir George Downing, who returned to England from America to fight on the side of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, was Oliver Cromwell's chief spy.

When Cromwell died, Downing brazenly changed sides to support the restoration of the monarchy in 1660; he convinced Charles II of his change of heart after helping to arrest three former allies, ...

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