Another Iraq Enquiry

Well! Yet another committee of enquiry into the matter of Iraq will start work today. Headed by Sir John Chilcot, the committee will allow itself to look at everything that has occurred in the last eight years. We are promised a report within one or two years - which by the standards of these type of things, is pretty quick. Sir John will have access to all British government documents and he can ask anyone to appear before the committee - but he cannot force them. Nor can he obtain documents from other countries. The enquiry will be held in public unless, for security reasons or because Sir John believes they will find out more, the committee goes into private session. Security reasons is a notorious catch-all for avoiding anything leaking into the public domain. And what will anyone say in private that they would not say in public? Where necessary, Sir John tells us, they will apportion blame.

Will we learn anything from this investigation? I doubt it. Already, I can feel that minions have been set to work out the back mixing the buckets of whitewash. Sir John is of the Establishment and I am sure that he is what Sir Humphrey Appleby would call "Sound!" A man who will know where his duty lies and may, for all I know, be already thinking in terms of added gongs.

If the report comes after the General Election I don't suppose that it will worry Gordon Brown much but if it contains any criticism whatsoever of the Blair project it may just stop the sainted Tony from being made President of Europe.

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