The shock resignation of Judge Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealander heading up the vast Child Abuse Inquiry seems hard to fathom. But she is the third Chair of this inquiry which has hardly begun its public hearings to go. That tells us more about the inquiry than its chair perhaps.
At the time of her appointment I was flabbergasted, not because she seemed unworthy but because the Home Office went to the other side of the world to recruit her. And now she has packed her bags and gone home, having had enough. But enough of what exactly?
It surely must be clear to the Home Office, admittedly not one of the world’s fast learners, that the structure of our public inquires, where we put a judge in charge and name the whole thing after them, do not really work. They bite off more than they can chew, take years to come forward with findings and then mostly, but not always get forgotten, This inquiry is critically important and cannot be allowed to fail. Michael Mansfield has expressed himself ready and willing. The victims back him. Why not the government?
Perhaps it fears he may get to the truth.