Hutton Double Take posted by Richard Seymour

So, the BBC is in "crisis". Really? It looks pretty much like the usual sterile establishment pap to me. Sorry, but while I fully commend the hard work of Andrew Gilligan in producing a worthwhile news report that was, for the most part, absolutely accurate, I can't join the chorus of liberals and right-wingers singing praise to the Beeb. The coverage of the Hutton Inquiry has involved almost at every level the unspoken assumption that somehow things might have been different. Journalists and reporters behaved as if they confidently expected Hutton to give the Prime Minister a sharp slap in the gob.

Twits. Let's see. An establishment man hand-picked by the government to conduct an inquiry directly answerable to the Prime Minister reaches conclusions which, although the fly in the face of all the available evidence and have confounded those who attended the inquiry, exclude the government from any damage. That fucking amazes you? I've got to play poker with you sharpies some time. In fact, the most interesting thing about Lord Hutton's conclusions, aside from the fabulous contortions of intellect and sense in support of the government, is the contempt in which the masses are held. It is perfectly permissible, Hutton said, for the Prime Minister to seek to beef up the wording of an intelligence dossier from the Joint Intelligence Committee if it is for the consumption of the public and not the government. One must never lie to one's colleagues, only to the people.

But I recant somewhat from my earlier thought that Hutton has been pointless. There is, after all, that mountain of evidence submitted, which Hutton has skated over, but which we may now assess. The Willesden Herald, which has had some excellent commentary on this week's events ("Note to Librarians: file Labour manifestos under Fiction", notes that:
The guilty are guilty regardless of what Judges say
Everyone can access the evidence seen by Lord Hutton. We are in the position of a jury. Nothing that a judge, court or jury says can ever change the actual guilt or innocence of anyone accused. It also has some excellent questions for his Lordship from Feargal Mooney.

And Seamus Milne, in today's Guardian, offers us some of what we may digest when we've had the chance to properly sink our teeth into the evidence:

"We know, for example, that Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell asked the joint intelligence committee's John Scarlett to redraft that part of the September dossier which suggested Saddam Hussein might use chemical and biological weapons "if he believes his regime is under threat" - and Scarlett did so, by taking out the qualifications. We know that Campbell asked Scarlett to change a claim that the Iraqi military "may be able" to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes to "are able". But Lord Hutton is of the view that this is not at all the "sexing up" that the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan quoted Kelly as complaining about. We also know that Blair chaired the meeting at which the strategy for outing Kelly was adopted, even though the prime minister later denied having anything to do with it. But, in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Lord Hutton, that was entirely consistent and honourable."

Claire Dyer adds in today's Guardian:

"Anthony Scrivener QC, a former chairman of the bar, said: "You get a conventional, conservative with a small "c" judge. You ask whether the prime minister and other members of the government have been lying through their teeth. As a conventional judge he applies the criminal standard of proof.

"You give him no right to get documents so he only sees the documents you give him. The result is entirely predictable."

One senior QC said: "I think the report reflects his establishment background. He is a trusting man as far as officialdom is concerned.""

*Yawn*. The sordid facts about our political class never cease to amaze the gullible.