Charles Kennedy: The court of public opinion will judge Tony Blair

[T_i_B]

The leader of the UK Liberal Democrats takes a look at the Hutton enquiry. Make of this what you will.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=437770

This morning, the Prime Minister will be a witness in court, though not literally in the dock. Ironically, though the Hutton inquiry is headed by a judge, it is not a judicial inquiry - even though it is taking place in the Courts of Justice. Lord Hutton has no power to require attendance or demand to see documents and papers and his remit is to focus on the tragic circumstances which preceded the suicide of Dr David Kelly. That, in my view, is a pity. The nation deserves the full, searching, light of judicial scrutiny to play on the whole of the controversial issues surrounding the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Yet Tony Blair's appearance will nevertheless be of extraordinary importance; and although he's not on trial, he will certainly be appearing before the court of public opinion, and may be harshly judged.

One of the most astonishing revelations of the inquiry came from Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff. In an e-mail, he said that on the basis of the intelligence contained in the September dossier, which was used to explain the threat from Saddam Hussein, the Government could not claim that Saddam was a threat even to his neighbours, let alone the West. Yet a week later the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that the threat from Saddam was "serious and current". How does the Prime Minister square those two comments?

Yesterday, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, told the inquiry that Dr Kelly - who has now been revealed as the Government's top expert on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - believed that there was only a 30 per cent chance that Iraq was producing chemical or biological weapons again. If he, a former UN inspector with continuing contacts inside the regime, believed this, why did the Prime Minister feel comfortable claiming - as he did in the dossier - that Iraq's WMD programme was "real, active ... up and running"?

[emad]

1. Jury's been out a long time, Mr K,

maybe they just want to hear this Immaculate Misconception's swansong. Those who have already successfully sued him and his gargoyle wife for slander, defamation and harassment eagerly await his rendition of that all time classic 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. So far we've only had the backing vocals.