It's one hand of the establishment washing the blood off the other.

Has Hutton some divine revelation, besides the whispers of a messianic prime minister, the rest of us do not? Of course he hasn't, he's a pillar of the establishment doing his part in keeping the edifice standing. That the evidence is all in the public domain rubs salt into an already raw insult: it's like playing the three card trick on someone, but with the cards the right way up.

This is democracy folks!

And then there was one (although I really can't see Humphreys going).

I personally don't agree with all this talk of a whitewash, though. Call me naive, but the way I see it, Hutton's verdict was entirely in accordance with his remit. Rather than condemning him for not going after the government over the 'dodgy dossier', people should be thankful that the inquiry itself was so far ranging in it's scope. A lot of highly incriminating details were uncovered about the compiling of the dossier, and it's just a shame that Blair's chant of 'wait and see, don't pre-empt the report's findings' has delayed the reckoning. But then, the government's chief weapon in this affair has been prevarication and blame-shifting... the government's two chief weapons have been...

Hutton's denial of jurisprudence to comment on the dossier has been the equivalent of donning a beekeeper's suit, and his condemnation of the Beeb has been the equivalent of whacking the bee hive with a cricket bat, hard. That's how I see it, anyhoo. Blair said he hoped 'this would draw a line under the matter'. [Chandler Bing]Yeah, like that's going to happen...[/Chandler Bing]

That remit was a straw man laid down by the Blair to distract the nation from the real issue of waging an illegal pre-emptive war. The Hutton inquiry had just enough relevance to the Iraqi war to allow the government to dismiss as redundant calls for another inquiry.

The worst thing to come out of it is Alistair Cambell's diary entry musing how to "f*** Gilligan", which is about as shocking as suggesting George Best has been known to like a few.

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by Cat
Personally i think the Beeb should keep up it's enquiries into the Kelly fiasco, let the goverment sue then the truth can come out in a court of law!

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So High JUDGE Hutton wasn't good enough?

(Edited by Havoc 02/02/2004 19:56)

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by Havoc
(quotes)

So High JUDGE Hutton wasn't good enough?

(Edited by Havoc 02/02/2004 19:56)

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You don't think that Judges can be wrong? Because I can give you a lot of examples where they were!

The good thing about this enquiry, and something that Hutton should be praised for, is the process of his enquiry which has been extraordinarily transparant, with the majority of the evidence available for anyone to view. Unfortunately for his Lordship, that means that the fact that his conclusions are cuckoo has not escaped anyones notice!

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by Avenger
You don't think that Judges can be wrong? Because I can give you a lot of examples where they were!

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No, I just happen to think they have a pretty good idea of how things go in a court of law, by all means critisize my comments but only when you understand them.

Havoc, if you wish to take issue with people's comments please lose the attitude and engage constructively.

(Edited by Staff 02/02/2004 22:59)

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by Havoc
(quotes)

So High JUDGE Hutton wasn't good enough?

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I was refering to a jury or at the very least a pannel deciding the virdict. One man's virdics is not enough

The standard 12-member jury should be empanelled. If it's good enough to try complicated libel and fraud cases, it's more than good enough to sift through politicos' dirty laundry. Not to mention being rather more representative than a septuagenarian with a thing for silk stockings.

Blair has now agreed to an inquiry into the intelligence service's handling of the 'evidence', for want of a better word, of WMDs, but not into what the politicians did with the information (notably, to not correct the headlines in the papers about WMDs being usable in 45 minutes against British interests). Hutton dealt with that, he says. Does he really think he can have his cake and eat it too? It's enough to make you vote Lib-Dem

We must talk Anarchy sometime ...

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by Havoc
So High JUDGE Hutton wasn't good enough?

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I suppose in an actual court case the Beeb might get a half decent chance to defend themselves, plus they might have an impar-- erm, I mean, a different judge... *looks for cliché unmarked black van pulling up to uni library building at high speed*

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by The_Host
Blair has now agreed to an inquiry into the intelligence service's handling of the 'evidence', for want of a better word, of WMDs, but not into what the politicians did with the information

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Know what i'd really like to know? probably not but anyway...

Why is no one asking questions about the original report, taken 90% (including gramatical errors) from a PHD thesis 10 yrs old?

Based on this i'd say the "inteligence operatives" have nothing in the slightest to answer for.

Unfortunatly their reports are confidencial so the goverment (and it's cronies) will put what it wants in the memo's to downing street and the spy's will look guilty and get 100% of the blame. (anyone wanna bet me 10 euros?)

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by Cat
anyone wanna bet me 10 euros?

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No, because in this country we use pounds.

Nice comeback there, space cadet. Except that Cat lives in Spain...

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by Cat
Know what i'd really like to know? probably not but anyway...

Why is no one asking questions about the original report, taken 90% (including gramatical errors) from a PHD thesis 10 yrs old?

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While '90%' is a slight exaggeration, the main reason for leaving that dossier to one side, I believe, is that it's considered more important to concentrate fire on the September '02, 'dodgy dossier', that was exposed to close scrutiny by the Hutton inquiry (if not the Hutton verdict).Actually, I think it was that second plagiaristic dossier that was originally described as 'dodgy', and there was another one about human rights that wasn't particularly dodgy, just not very interesting...