Hutton: What Was the Fucking Point of That? posted by Richard Seymour

I'd like to address his lordship with that particular question. If he's available for a chat, I'll be in the Freemasons Arms in Covent Garden tonight*, because I want some frigging answers.

Let's summarise:

1) The report has nothing to say about the war, the misuse of intelligence, or the possibility that Tony Blair has lied.

2) The report notes that Gilligan's allegations were "grave" and "attacked the integrity of the Government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)". Doesn't miss much this guy, does he? He does suggest that Kelly did not tell Gilligan that the government knew the "45 minute claim" was wrong, and that therefore Gilligan has extrapolated too freely from his notes which did not support such a conclusion. He does emphasise that the BBC's editorial system in this case had been "defective". He does not say that the 45 minute claim was accurate, which is the most important point.

3) It does not tell us if the MoD were allowed "to confirm the name if it was put to them" with Tony Blair's specific say so, as many suspect.

4) It's only positive conclusion is that "Dr Kelly took his own life and no third party was involved". I have no idea how to evaluate this claim, and with all due respect to the Kelly family I have no particular interest in it. Public enquiries are not supposed to investigate conspiracy theories - at least in part because if there is a conspiracy anywhere along the line, the last place the truth is likely to emerge is in a public enquiry, particularly one directly set up and accountable to the Prime Minister.

5) It also suggests that the Joint Intelligence Committee's assessment was perhaps "subconsciously" influenced by the Prime Minister's desire to have a powerful document, (a weasel phrase), but it suggests that the assessment was "in line with available intelligence", which is to say that it presented all manner of flimsy suggestions coming from any kind of source, polished them with any lurid depiction available, and presented it in a dossier. "Available intelligence" is a non-descript, indiscriminating term, probably deliberately employed to avoid questions as to what Scarlett or Blair knew of its quality and veracity.

So, failing some subtle clause buried deep within the text which our eagle-eyed journalists have yet to spot, we have finished with a belaboured exercise in futility, and a series of splash points for The Sun. No truth, no revelation, just barrel-scraping and evasion. Thanks, your lordship.

*No I won't. Don't need any 'fans' turning up with baseball bats.