h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If I remember correctly from the news last night, Hutton concedes that Downing Street may have sexed up the dossier, but that is dependant on the definition of 'sexed up'.

If you take it to mean that they tried to make the strongest possible case for war given the evidence provided, then Hutton agrees it might be possible. But, if you take it to mean that Downing Street invented evidence, or inserted that which it knew to be unreliable, then Hutton flatly disagrees.


Geggs

The report states that the claim that the government "sexed up" the dossier on WMD is "unfounded" (ie isn't backed by the available evidence), rather than it has been definitively shown to be untrue. If the government really believed its 45 minute claim, which they may well have done, one has to ask why the claim of a single, unnamed, source was given credence over the lack of evidence from the inspectors on the ground. "It must be true because we want it to be true" is not a good basis for such serious policy decisions as going to war.

Noggin

I am wondering what happens to the BBC now? The media has been talking about grave consequences. Do a few heads roll, or can we expect something worse to happen?

Gregg Dykes gone too now.

Oh B*gger

Two of my great interests in any media at the moment focus primarily on the BBC : H2G2, and Doctor Who . Oh well, shall I start getting the save hootoo and Doctor Who campaigns now then?

A respectable academic learned guy, took his own life to make a statement about a state of affairs..

Thing is tho, I never believe all I read or believe all that people say about stuff, prolly because I have read far too many espionage novels and thrillers and such like...you never know whom might be covering for who, or if indeed he did commit suicide...

I am not trying to make a conspiracy theory, there are plenty of ppl willing to do that stuff - blow smoke to cover the fire so to speak, I am just putting forth my view.

Isn't all this stuff a bit like shutting the door after the horse has bolted?

Would be good to find the crux of the truth, however.

What he said was that 'sexed up' was a loose and ill-defined term. Under an entirely benign definition of 'sexed up' (roughly translated to 'emphasised real intelligence') then they did sex it up, but under the definition we all understood it to mean (roughly translated to 'knowingly included false stuff just to scare us') then they didn't. In other words, no evidence has come to light that they lied over the 45 minute claim because it was based on intelligence that they believed.

There was also the distinction between an underhand strategy to name Dr Kelly and a non-underhand strategy. The latter is what the govt is said to have had.

It seems that the conclusion is that Dr Kelly killed himself, and that this was a tradgedy that was broadly nobody's fault. Also, he went beyond his remit in talking to Andrew Gilligan. Andrew Gilligan then misrepresented what Dr Kelly had told him, or ascribed to Dr Kelly comments that he didn't/couldn't back up. The BBC failed to prevent the broadcast of this misrepresentation. They also failed to respond adequately to complaints from Alistair Campbell. Most of this seems to be believeable. It is the questions relating to WMD that were not within Hutton's self-defined scope that were most controversial, and sadly I feel we will never fully know the answers.

Basically Teflon Tony escapes again.

I had to check BBC News site before I believed it. But yes, Greg Dyke has gone. This is a shame. He actually maanged to make the BBC decent again, following on from the disaster that was John Birt.

A shame. A great shame.


Geggs

After reflecting on the result of the enquiry I now tend to agree that the result was correct given the limits set on the enquiry itself...
I think the main reason I'm so disappointed in the result is that I was hoping that the enquiry would in some way deal with the facts behind we went to war... What I think I wanted is an inquiry into why the dozens of British, Hundreds of American and Thousands of Iraqi people died... not just why one scientist killed himself!

However, I'm also of the opinion that this will never happen - simply put, either the government was incompetant or the intelligence services were incompetant, there are no other alternatives! And as the both parties are likely to hide behind a veil of 'national security' then there's no way there could ever be a meaningful enquiry...

Well, providing there is still a BBC then, in about 30 years there will no doubt be a Horizon or Panorama something programme all about it !

"Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has said the Hutton report will be taken into account in the 2006 review of the BBC's charter."

Yikes - there goes the BBC!

is there any way we could get our licence fees reduced on moral reasons?

lets face it, even if the Hutton report says the government weren't dishonest it doesn't mean they tell us the truth does it.

One of the news reports I heard included an inference derived from the report that David Kelly stepped out of line in talking to the BBC & had partly himself to blame for the publicity. I have yet to read the full report but even if this is so, I find it hard to believe that the government can be considered totally innocent.

what seems odd to me, and correct me if I have misunderstood as this is extrapolating somewhat, is that one of the central themes is that journalists must ensure they always report only the truth. Not necessarily what is reported or given to them as the truth, but the actual objective truth. This seems to be what the Govt. is saying. Now I am not disagreeing with that, but given that the Govts. own position is that it did not lie about the 45 min claim because it believed it was true there seems a little discrepancy there. I.e. journalists must get the truth, but politicians only have to get what they *believe* to be the truth. Since both groups have a responsibility to the public in providing accurate and unbiased information to them surely both should be held to the same standard?

As for the independance of the BBC, imagine what would have happened if this had been one of the other broadcasters and not the BBC, there would be nothing like the comeback.

No, I don;t see any real winners here, least of all the family of Dr. Kelly. I wouldn;t like to have my dear ones death hijacked for a political argument.

Anybody see question time last night?

I though Ian Hislops grilling of Beckett was excellent!

I didn't. Can you sumerise what happened?


Geggs

Beckett slavishly put the governments point on each and every issue and Hislop tore her to shreds... to great applause from the audience each and every time.

The thing that struck me as odd is the the way the audience were reacting to the other speaker it seemed to be a predominantly left/liberal one. Makes it all the more interesting how they reacted to her. I rather feel that the Hutton report may have totally vindicated the Govt but that is not the feeling of the populace at large.

Don't forget that the head of the BBC is a Government appointed post - the only part of the BBC that has a remit for independant thought is BBC2 on the basis that not many people will be watching it anyway (and if they start to, the show gets transefered to a graveyard slot on BBC1 so it can be quashed without much fuss...not that it's worked with HIGNFY )

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