{"id":2067,"date":"2010-08-14T18:26:16","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T16:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2010-08-14T18:26:16","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T16:26:16","slug":"2067","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2067","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Blair, Dr. Kelly, the Dossier and Hutton.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have read the comments and listened to the arguments advanced by all sides since the issue of the death of the scientist was raised again in the Times.<\/em> There are powerful and informed voices raised in favour of an inquest. There are equally strong arguments advanced to leave sleeping dogs lie. Nothing that I have heard, read or seen, changes my view that an inquest is essential. It may not change the\u00a0notion of what happened to Dr. Kelly, but it will explain it and close the matter. It could, of course, if the Coroner is not convinced, leave the\u00a0question unresolved, with an open verdict.\u00a0That would be a telling repudiation of Hutton.<\/p>\n

I know some suspect murder, others a conspiracy at the top of government. It may very well be that this unfortunate man, driven by conscience and anxiety to share his fears with a journalist, cracked under the relentless spotlight of the media\u00a0and the\u00a0shabby treatment by the authorities and took his life.<\/p>\n

To me there are oddities unexplained. Why was Tony Blair, a seasoned\u00a0political leader,\u00a0 negotiator with former terrorists and the man who had ordered three wars, so ashen faced and distracted when the news broke? Nobody had ever seen him so uptight. This was, after all, on the face of it,\u00a0the suicide of an official who had bitten off more than he could chew. Why should the government feel threatened? Why were the police and coroner not able to investigate normally through an inquest and come to a conclusion? What was the big deal?<\/p>\n

Why was a public enquiry set up in the form that it was to halt the normal process of the law? Why did it come to\u00a0\u00a0 conclusions which, on the published evidence, seemed perverse? Was it to get at the truth or cover it up? Was this New Labour spin for the sake of control, because they were control freaks, or because there was something to hide. Did that something matter or just matter to them?<\/p>\n

There may be nothing in it. Yet if you put the names Blair, Kelly and Hutton together, add a sofa, a dossier\u00a0and various Downing Street personalities, most people get an uncomfortable feeling. We need to know why. An inquest\u00a0into David Kelly’s death according to the law, together with the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry, may together tell us the answer.<\/p>\n

Through my life I have been absorbed by mysteries. Who killed\u00a0 President Kennedy? Did the Titanic break in two? Was Hess murdered, or was it even Hess? There is a list. I could go on. Only the Titanic has yielded up her secrets. I have my theories about the others. But then so has everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Blair, Dr. Kelly, the Dossier and Hutton. I have read the comments and listened to the arguments advanced by all sides since the issue of the death of the scientist was raised again in the Times. There are powerful and informed voices raised in favour of an inquest. There are equally strong arguments advanced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malcolm-blair-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2070,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}