The Chilcot Enquiry

I like the way this inquiry into the Iraq war is going. I know there are some commentators and a good many disappointed lawyers who feel counsel should be employed so that witnesses can be put under pressure in cross examination to reveal a deeper truth. I think it is precisely because the atmosphere is relaxed and the method inquisitorial that we are learning as much as we are. High ranking diplomats and other officials are being extraordinarily blunt about their misgivings about Government policy and scathing about the incompetence and naivity of the Bush administration. They would be on guard under old adversarial system and would be far less frank.

This is why the record of public enquiries in recent years is so dismal. Not only have they cost the earth and the moon and stars as well, but they have had little credibility outside the Westminster village. This one is different. Already we know that our worst fears were well founded. And there is more, a lot more, to come.