Whitewash!

It’s hard not to think this about Hutton. The whole report has been very very disappointing. It’s hard to agree with Rod Liddle’s comments about this being yet another inquiry which exonerates Government – including the impeachable civil and secret services – and demonstrates how out of touch with reality the judiciary is.

I’m convinced that the majority of the public (and press,) will continue to think – irrespective of what Hutton has to say – that:

• Gilligan’s story was basically right.
• The dossier was ‘sexed up’.
• The Secret Services said what their paymasters wanted them to say.
• That Blair did know about the outing of Kelly – despite what he said in Hong Kong.

At the same time, the BBC is far from blameless. That Greg Dyke and Richard Sambrook, appear not to have listened to the 6:07am report before they responded to Campbell is astonishing. Perhaps they trusted the integrity of Gilligan, Marsh et al. If so, that was incredibly naive. It’s not rocket science to suggest that they should have listened to the evidence before they defended it.

It’s also hard not to question the effectiveness of the Governors too, a group who have been weak for a long time. I always wondered how they could carry out their functions part-time and when so many of them don’t have any idea about broadcasting or how the BBC works on the shop floor. I have the same feeling about non-Executive Director’s per se, so my feelings here are not unique to the BBC Governors.

What’s most worrying however is that with Charter Renewal looming this will be a stick that all the BBC’s enemies will use to beat it with. Auntie isn’t perfect, but those of us who support it will probably need to support the call to arms sooner rather than later…