The Chilcot Iraq Enquiry - two views of Alastair Campbell's evidence

The BBC are conflicted when reporting this enquiry; they are deeply anti the invasion of Iraq but are also very concerned that no damage accrues to Gordon Brown or his Labour government, there is also the collective memory of what happened when the BBC crossed Alastair Campbell in the not too distant past. Thus the BBC's report of today's evidence is a masterpiece of subtle reporting. If you want an idea of what questions should have been asked of Alastair Campbell then a read of Andrew Gilligan's piece in The Telegraph should prove most instructive.

Of course it matters little what questions are asked of Alastair Campbell or indeed Tony Blair, for they are neither giving evidence under oath. Mind you to paraphrase what I blogged back in July:

'The news that Sir John Chilcot has said that Tony Blair would be among those asked to give evidence and that he did not expect anyone to refuse does not fill me with great confidence. Unless Tony Blair and others are under oath, wired to a polygraph and given a sodium pentothal injection first; I will find it hard to be sure that they are telling 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'.'