By Will Keys

The phrase “Deep State” is tossed about so casually these days that the public either dismisses it as nonsense or fears it as something mystical. In truth, there is nothing mystical about it at all. A Deep State is an unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic organism that grows when power is quietly concentrated in the hand of powerful people who live in the shadows. It is neither theory nor fantasy. Its earliest and clearest modern form is found in Britain, inside that peculiar square mile known simply as The City.

In my book Perfidious Albion, I explain how the City evolved over many centuries into a sovereign realm of its own—immune from ordinary law, protected by ancient privileges, and served by the machinery of the state. It is the world’s longest-lived Deep State, and modern Western Deep States are merely its progeny.

The Lonrho Machine: A Practical Lesson in Deep State Power

For those who think these ideas abstract, consider the case of Tiny Rowland and Lonrho—one of the finest real-world illustrations of Deep State anatomy.

Rowland’s empire in Africa was not merely a corporation. It was a hybrid creature operating at the intersection of business, intelligence, and political manipulation. When Rowland required support, he turned not to markets, but to MI6, the Home Office, GCHQ, the Royal Family,  and the wider security machinery. These were deployed—quietly, effectively, and without public authorisation.

This is how a Deep State functions:

• Development: a private power builds connections within the permanent machinery of government.
• Deployment: those connections become tools to shape events abroad and at home.
• Utilisation: state intelligence services act not for the elected government, but for private or factional interests.
• Execution: outcomes are engineered, opponents neutralised, and accountability avoided.

Lonrho in Africa was not a rogue case. It was simply visible enough to reveal the pattern.

This is the hallmark of a British-style Deep State: the seamless fusion of private influence and state intelligence, all shielded by a long tradition of immunity.

The American Imitation: A New Deep State Built Overnight

The United States never had a historical Deep State in the British sense. It lacked the centuries-old privileges of the City. It lacked an enclave immune from prosecution. It lacked hereditary centres of untouchable influence.

But what it did have—and what Britain never had—was a period of bureaucratic corruption so intense that it manufactured a Deep State in a single generation.

The Clinton Administration, followed by Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, and then the Obama-era corruption of the federal agencies, produced something the founders of the republic never imagined: a permanent administrative class that placed itself above the voter.

• The Clinton Foundation blurred the line between state power and private enrichment.
• The Obama-era Department of Justice, CIA, and FBI began behaving as political actors rather than public servants.
• Career bureaucrats, once neutral, became ideological warriors.

By January 2017 it was so entrenched that Senator Chuck Schumer could say, without embarrassment:

“If you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

That was not a warning. It was an admission.

Five Eyes and the Attempted Political Execution of Donald J. Trump

The British Deep State, with centuries of practice, lent its hand.

Key elements of Five Eyes—originally a defensive intelligence partnership—were drawn into an operation to undermine a sitting U.S. presidential candidate and, later, a president-elect. British intelligence assets and American bureaucrats worked hand-in-glove, feeding one another information, shaping media narratives, and bypassing democratic oversight.

It was London’s model adopted in Washington:
a network of officials insulated from accountability, directing events that elected leaders could neither control nor fully understand.

This was not the lawful guardianship of national security.
It was Deep State behaviour—pure and simple.

Why Understanding the Deep State Matters

Critics often argue that concepts like the Deep State are “too complicated” for the public, or that discussing them invites hysteria. On the contrary, complexity is no excuse for ignorance.

A civilised society has a duty to understand the forces that govern it—especially those that operate in the shadows. The evolution of a Deep State is indeed complicated. It is historically layered, legally obscure, and deliberately concealed.
But democracy assumes an informed citizenry.

If we do not understand these structures, we are governed by them.
If we refuse to examine them, we relinquish our rights without even knowing it.

This Op-Ed is a small attempt to encourage that understanding.

The First Step Toward Honesty

Western nations pride themselves on openness and accountability, yet both Britain and America now face the same uncomfortable truth: a class of unelected, unaccountable actors has amassed power beyond the reach of voters.

Britain built its Deep State over centuries;
America built its version in a few short decades.

In both cases, the result is the same:

• intelligence services that serve factions, not nations;
• bureaucracies that punish elected leaders who defy them;
• private interests cloaked in the authority of the state;
• and a political culture where truth is treated as an inconvenience.

It is time we stopped pretending.
A Deep State exists.
It is not invisible.
It is not theoretical.
And understanding it is the first step toward restoring the democratic integrity our societies once took for granted.