Wednesday 28 January 2004

BBC targeted as Hutton clears Blair

Well suprise suprise! This is even more of a joke than I thought it was going to be, and watching Phony Tony gloating about it on TV makes my stomach turn and I get this urge to vomit all over his expensive suit. Apart from the fact that I don't believe Dr Kelly committed suicide, this whole enquiry has simply served to deflect attention away from the fact that I haven't seen any of those bloody WMD Blair kept banging on about, and don't give me any of that WMD "programmes" bullshit, I'm not that stuipd. That basically means that despite what Hutton says, THE GOVERNMENT LIED ABOUT THE REASONS FOR GOING TO WAR IN IRAQ. But they're getting away with it, and will now probably use this as an excuse to make changes that will ensure Auntie does what she's told in future.

· Corporation's governors criticised
· 'No third party' in Kelly death
· Blair delivers Commons response


Lord Hutton today gave full backing to the government's conduct in the David Kelly affair, but accused the BBC of "defective" editorial management.

In a one and three-quarter hour summary of his findings, delivered at the high court, the judge ran through the sequence of events that began with the writing of the September 2002 dossier and ended with Dr Kelly's suicide.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, has called for those who had impugned his integrity and that of the government to withdraw their allegations.

By contrast, the BBC's robust defence of itself in the face of government complaints over the story came in for heavy criticism.

The law lord said the corporation's management had failed to appreciate that BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan's notes did not support the most serious of his allegations.

He added that governors should have recognised and investigated the differences between them.

Lord Hutton accused Alastair Campbell of "raising the temperature" of the row by the tone of his complaints. But he added that the governors should have recognised that their legitimate desire to protect the BBC's independence was not incompatible with investigating those complaints.

Lord Hutton said that the dossier's 45-minute claim may be proved to be wrong in the future, but that Mr Gilligan's allegation that the government knew that it was wrong when the dossier was published was "unfounded" because intelligence chiefs believed its source was reliable.

He described Mr Gilligan's report as a "grave allegation" and a slur on the government's integrity.

Full story...