This "splash" in the Times gave the government's game away. Tony Blair wants to be able to blame the MI6 spies for his decision to go to war with Iraq, and Rupert Murdoch's newspapers will be with him all the way.
Following Hutton, you would have thought that anyone suggesting another inquiry would have been sent straight to the puzzle factory. The Tories should have told Blair to get stuffed, but Michael Howard was so bruised in the Commons during the week that he was quick to agree with the Prime Minister's latest scam. He also had to agree, because his party had foolishly backed the war. Watching Ken Clarke, who opposed the war, perform brilliantly on BBC2's Newsnight, you could see how Blair would probably be finished by now if there had been any real official opposition in Westminster. It did not take long for Blair's reverse gear to get back into action but, shamefully, it did so only because his mate George Bush has an election on his hands.
Blair, however, won't be too dismayed. I have no doubt Robin Butler's inquiry will exonerate him, although we should have some fun if we ever get to see the so-called "intelligence". I have seen a lot of this stuff myself - even though I wasn't meant to - and it will prove to be truly shocking. The nation will discover just how bad the intelligence service is, and begin to ask why we are spending so much money to produce so much rubbish. At the Treasury, we got a better service from the Financial Times than from the spooks, who seemed more concerned about whom the French finance minister was shagging.
The British people didn't buy Hutton, and they won't buy Butler.
