Searching for the Truth
Barely seven days ago, Lord Hutton delivered his report on the death of David Kelly. The Government, widely expected to be reprimanded, was almost completely exonerated. The finger of accusation pointed firmly at the BBC. Defying all predictions, Tony Blair escaped unscathed.
The media were stunned. This was not the truth they had been expecting. As the week progressed, more and more commentators spoke out against the report. Andrew Gilligan defended his story as 'mostly correct', as if that justified its errors. Newspapers, more accustomed to spitting poison at one another, lined up shoulder-to-shoulder to condemn Hutton.
The man himself was subtly (and not so subtly) impugned. He was a 'bad judge', an 'establishment man' who was 'bound' to 'side' with the Government against the BBC. Strange, then, that no-one had raised such concerns when he was appointed, during the hearings or at any stage in the intervening three months. Was this wisdom after the event or a case of sour grapes?
At the same time, David Kay's resignation and sensational testimony in the US have encouraged George Bush to set up an inquiry into the role of intelligence in the Iraq war, with Blair following suit in the UK.
Underlying all these machinations is a determined search for 'the truth'. Our culture's much-vaunted relativism is strangely unwelcome at this table. This may well be your truth, but is it the truth?
For some, Hutton is indeed the truth, no matter how difficult to swallow. Others disagree, some because they are unable to believe anything good of Blair and Campbell, others because the idea that journalists can be part of the problem rather than the solution is simply unacceptable.
Still others take issue with the report, not because it isn't the truth, but because it isn't the whole truth. For them, it fails to answer a larger question: did we go to war under false pretences? If the Government didn't deliberately mislead us, an even more frightening question arises: how could the intelligence services be so wrong?
Opinions will vary and debates rage. But the very foundation stone of any such argument is the tacit agreement not simply that the truth is 'out there' but that, unlike half-truths which are liable to lose you your job, the truth will set you free.
Nick Spencer
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