THE name is Jamie, Jamie from Glasgow.

No surname, because that is the way we do things in MI5 these days. Casual, cautious, covert.

On a need-to-know-basis what we can tell you is that Jamie is 13, his chum Reuben is the same age, and Finley is 10. What else do you require? Oh yes, the important bit. The Security Service would like to point out that, despite Jamie hailing from Scotland, he is not here to improve our agents' ability to decipher the conversations of those Scottish Nationalists planning the break-up of Britain. See us? See accents? Nae bother, big chap.

In reality, Jamie was one of the winners of a Blue Peter competition, codenamed Project Petra (sob), to win a visit to MI5 headquarters in London and meet Andrew Parker, the Director-General of the organisation. Jamie was understandably chuffed at making history. This was the first time "civilians" and cameras had been invited to have a look round MI5. You can see the results next Thursday on CBBC.

As PR stunts go this was quite the coup for MI5. It used to be an offence to even acknowledge that the security services existed. Now they are out and proud and on the telly, whether in fictional form (Spooks) or factual. No Blue Peter badges for wondering what was in for them. In today's Austerity Britain, where departments outside the ring-fenced areas live in constant fear of more cuts, and where only the moon barkers of Ukip will commit to spending two per cent of GDP on defence, it is every man Jack for himself out there. One cannot defend the realm on fresh air alone, and PR hot air never goes amiss.

This is particularly the case if there is negative publicity about the security agencies doing the rounds; publicity of the sort that usually comes with the names "Snowden" or "Assange" attached. The founder of Wikileaks was beamed into a conference of lawyers in Glasgow this week to talk about "international intelligence gathering, abuse of power and privacy". Mr Assange, resident in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, does not get out at all these days for fear of being flown to Sweden to answer allegations of sexual assault - allegations he denies - and from there being extradited to America, where some other officers would like a chat. A live link on a giant screen, talking about Big Brother in Big Brother-style, it had to be.

In response to a question from David Leask of The Herald, Mr Assange said Scottish Nationalists were not paranoid in thinking MI5 had taken an interest in the referendum. As far as the UK Government was concerned, independence was a national security issue. As such, the intelligence might of the state, including monitoring services at GCHQ, could be used. It was already known, he added, that the UK diplomatic service had been less than diplomatic in cabling overseas governments about the referendum.

Mr Assange is not alone in taking a dim view of the security service and the role it might or might not be playing when it comes to independence. His disquiet follows warnings last year from Jim Sillars, former SNP deputy leader, that "agents provocateur, Special Branch and MI5" had undermined the nationalist cause in the past and it was "naive" to think they were not taking a role in the independence campaign today.

Many folk, on hearing views such as these, will have a similar reaction. It is the kind of response usually only deployed when the person standing opposite you at a party says they once saw a spaceship. First, the face freezes into a rictus grin. Secondly, the theme tune to The Twilight Zone starts to play in one's head. Finally, the body takes it upon itself to move away, nice and slow, from the person making such claims. Just because they are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you too. Mr Assange's claims are the stuff of paranoia, are they not?

Voters, by and large, trust their security services, or at least believe they are on their side. They regard them as part of the furniture of state, a comfy old armchair that has always been in the corner. Rightly or wrongly, they do not lie awake at night worrying what the funny folk are up to. If they do have any doubts, they can comfort themselves with the notion that there is always parliamentary oversight. It is the Establishment policing itself, of course it is, but at least it is there. It would take a lot for Middle England, middle UK as a whole, to become paranoid about the security services. This same constituency would also reckon that the British security services have quite enough to be getting on with to waste any time on Scotland and her sashays to and from independence. Between Russia, Islamic State and al-Qaeda there are not enough hours in the day.

All fair enough points. But if we know anything from the heavily redacted history of the security services it is that we do not know nearly enough about what goes on. Judging by a range of matters, whether it be Spycatcher, the memoir of the former MI5 officer Peter Wright, who claimed operatives "bugged and burgled" their way across London in the name of the state, or the murky goings on in Northern Ireland, it never does to rule anything out entirely when it comes to the security services. That said, it would be a huge leap to go from this to adopting Assange-level states of suspicion. For one thing, if there really are agents out to undermine the independence cause then they are more Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English than Fleming's Bond.

Take the recent story about what was said, or rather not said, at the meeting between Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, and the French ambassador. No sooner than it was published than the tale began to fall apart. A couple of phone calls and a tweet from the First Minister was enough to do it. If that was an effort to discredit Ms Sturgeon a two-year-old on secondment to MI5 could have done better. Peter Wright said the 11th commandment of the security services was "don't get caught", not "get caught within five minutes". As for the UK Government lobbying other governments in support of the status quo, that is what they do. Would any government in an independent Scotland not do the same to back a cause it held dear? In any case, the Scottish Government, as it showed during Ferrero Rocher-gate, is hardly backwards in coming forward in defence of itself.

There are obvious enemies within the independence movement but it hardly takes a super spy to identify them. They are the folk who rush to Twitter before engaging brain, who bully rather than try to persuade, who spout abuse in place of reason. Yes, similar happens on the other side as well, but hardly to the same extent. Seeing what a great job some of these cyberloons do in discrediting their cause, MI5 has no need to lift a finger.