Friday, September 26, 2003
It was the wrap-up on the evidence at the Hutton Enquiry yesterday, what on earth will Newsnight find to talk about now?
The QC for the Kelly Family, The QC for the Government, The QC for the BBC and The QC for Andrew Gilligan.
So, what have we learnt? That the dossier probably wasn't sexed up as such, and that might have been invented by Andrew Gilligan, who is unreliable enough in his evidence that his future career will probably involve writing for the Daily Mail. The Tories have overstepped the mark by calling for Tony Blair's head in this matter when clearly the fault lies with Alistair Campbell and Geoff Hoon for using Dr. Kelly to settle scores with the BBC (Tony Blair should resign for taking us to war on a number of falsehoods). The BBC were in the wrong for standing behind Gilligan before checking that his story was accurate, however, given the amount of daily hectoring they received, mainly from Campbell again, it's not surprising that they may have felt they had to do something before all their bases were covered.
Campbell has organised things so that he'll be leaving of his own free will rather than having to be fired by Blair or made to resign in disgrace. Hoon looks as though he intends to stay until he's forced to resign, causing more embaresment for Blair after similar situations with Mandelson and Byers. The BBC have already said that Gilligan won't work for the Today program again, having his own seperate lawyer at the enquiry suggests he's aware of how difficult his situation has become.
The QC for the Kelly Family, The QC for the Government, The QC for the BBC and The QC for Andrew Gilligan.
So, what have we learnt? That the dossier probably wasn't sexed up as such, and that might have been invented by Andrew Gilligan, who is unreliable enough in his evidence that his future career will probably involve writing for the Daily Mail. The Tories have overstepped the mark by calling for Tony Blair's head in this matter when clearly the fault lies with Alistair Campbell and Geoff Hoon for using Dr. Kelly to settle scores with the BBC (Tony Blair should resign for taking us to war on a number of falsehoods). The BBC were in the wrong for standing behind Gilligan before checking that his story was accurate, however, given the amount of daily hectoring they received, mainly from Campbell again, it's not surprising that they may have felt they had to do something before all their bases were covered.
Campbell has organised things so that he'll be leaving of his own free will rather than having to be fired by Blair or made to resign in disgrace. Hoon looks as though he intends to stay until he's forced to resign, causing more embaresment for Blair after similar situations with Mandelson and Byers. The BBC have already said that Gilligan won't work for the Today program again, having his own seperate lawyer at the enquiry suggests he's aware of how difficult his situation has become.
