Hutton Inquiry: British media warns of a Blair whitewash too far

[TruthIsAll]

At least they have a media and public which knows a whitewash when they see it, especially one as crude as this.

Of course, we can expect our TV mediawhores to allow the Keane 9/11 commission to whitewash Bush on 9/11. And they will let the Repukes whitewash Bush on the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitiz OSP manipulation of Iraq WMD intel.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/hutt-j30_prn.shtml

Hutton Inquiry: British media warns of a whitewash too far
By Julie Hyland
30 January 2004

In the wake of the Hutton Inquiry report exonerating Prime Minister Tony Blair of any blame for events leading up to the death of whistleblower Dr. David Kelly, Blair has declared himself and his government vindicated and urged the resignation of all those who suggested he had lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in advance of the war. However, the consensus view in the British press was that Hutton’s whitewash of Blair was so crude as to have virtually no legitimacy, and cautioned the government against its heady triumphalism.

The Independent warned, “Mr. Blair’s triumphalism is mistaken: this unbalanced report does not vindicate his decision to go to war”, whilst the Financial Times opined that Hutton’s findings were “unlikely to end the controversy that began with the suicide of the distinguished weapons inspector.... The government escapes too lightly for is role in outing Mr. Kelly, and the questions raised about the use of intelligence were beyond Lord Hutton’s remit.”

snip

The outcome of Hutton’s inquiry is not simply a personal affair. Rather, Hutton’s inability to perform a more effective snowjob, his apparent indifference to the popular outrage his report will generate, points to more fundamental processes within the body politic.

The entire apparatus of rule is internally rotten and corrupt—upheld only through lies, deceit and the threat of force. The days when the ruling elite could lift the corner on a scandal, in order to keep the rest under wraps, have long past. Such a state of affairs was feasible only under conditions where it was possible to mediate class antagonisms by making some concessions to workers’ interests through social reforms.

The bourgeoisie in its entirety has repudiated such a programme, glorifying the free market and the unprecedented social polarisation that has accompanied it. The result is that politics within Britain has become so far removed from the interests and concerns of the broad mass of the population, and so exclusively the preserve of an extremely wealthy and privileged oligarchy, that it is impossible to speak of a democratic process in any meaningful way.