That is not a headline you are likely to see currently, but I ask you to pause for a moment and consider the following:
Hutton is a judge. Judges support Governments and loathe journalists. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that his report into the Dr Kelly death was biased heavily towards the Blair Government. A whitewash in fact. The Independent newspaper had a glorious front page which was 90% white paper highlighting this.
The problem that most of us have with this is that we know certain facts:
1. The Government puts spin on it's actions
2. At the centre of this affair is the Government's ex spinmeister extraordinaire, Alistair Campbell
3. The Government are far from blameless and have not come up with a reason why they went to war on a false premise. The dossier was sexed up - it was spin.
So that leaves Lord Hutton in a difficult situation. And he has come up with a master plan! He has produced a document so thick with whitewash that it is not credible. Therefore, all right minded people have dismissed it as such. Wonderful! He has stayed loyal to his roots, he knows his position in The System, and yet he has masterfully turned the tables and remained, apparently, faithful and loyal to all.
According to DIY experts, when putting on whitewash you have to put it on quite thinly for it to have a lasting effect. Lavish it on too thickly and it very quickly starts to flake off revealing the original mess and leaving things looking far worse than if they had not been touched.
A round of applause, if you please, for Lord Hutton.
Posted by grahame at February 1, 2004 10:37 AM | TrackBack:-)
Posted by: John at February 1, 2004 08:57 PM