Hutton Enquiry
I think it is probably a fact that the Hutton Enquiry, now regarded with derision by everyone outside Westminster, is the most discredited in recent history. The current Iraq enquiry is a far more comprehensive affair altogether and does not suffer the disadvantage of operating under our adversarial system of legal practice.
It is easy to forget what Hutton was about. It brought into the open the weakness of the whole case for attacking Iraq and opened huge questions about the competence of the security services and the veracity of the government. The country watched all this unfold daily and was uncomprehending when the outcome was to blame it all on the BBC.
However Hutton was not about the war. It was about the death of David Kelly. Its conclusion that Kelly committed suicide because he suffered a breakdown following his exposure as a whistle blower was generally accepted. A few conspiracy theorists (there are always some) asserted he had been murdered. I thought that most unlikely. Yesterday I read that the medical papers relating to the post mortem of Kelly and other relevant documents have been sealed under the Official Secrets Act for an astonishing seventy years. This changes everything. It means that far from being unlikely, the possibility of Kelly being murdered is now very likely indeed.