HUTTON INQUIRY WRAPUP….Phase 1 of the Hutton inquiry is over, and a reader has alerted me to this summary in the Guardian. To my surprise, it actually appears to be relatively fairminded, concluding, among other things, that “Andrew Gilligan’s story that No 10 wanted to ‘sex up’ the Iraq dossier has largely been vindicated, but his claim that Downing Street inserted the 45 minute claim knowing it to be wrong has not been substantiated.”
That sounds about right to me, and the other nine points they make seem basically correct too.
(However, it’s worth noting that the Hutton inquiry focused on the government, not the BBC, so the Guardian summary doesn’t have much to say about how the BBC handled the affair.)
The Guardian also has a very nice index to all the evidence and transcripts from the Hutton inquiry here. The evidence is organized only by date on the Hutton inquiry website, but the Guardian has it organized by topic, which, needless to say, is considerably easier to navigate.
