Politics OnLine UK

Before Tony Blair gets too far ahead of himself let's just draw breath. It may be that within the letter of the law Blair did not lie to Parliament. Regardless of the fury that surrounded Kelly's exposure and that Alistair Campbell wrote in his diary that he wanted to expose David Kelly in order to "fuck Andrew Gilligan", the BBC reporter, Tony Blair has escaped censure for lying to Parliament.

But is that the point? Is this about Parliament or is it about people, you and me? It is ordinary people, you and me and our country, who have been hurt by the bogus war on Iraq and by the furore over Kelly and the subsequent enquiry and report by Hutton. It remains that the dossier was wrong, and, if not sexed up, emphasis placed to make the best case for war.

Kelly has been criticized for inappropriately approaching Gilligan, but is it not the right of every person of conscience to speak out when they perceive a wrong being committed, should they so choose to do. I do not mean the right of law or Parliament, but the right of conscience and morality. Parliament is not above conscience or morality, in fact it ought to be subservient to them, for they are of a higher order then Law. Else we would have no Gandhi, no Thoreau or Plaff come to that.

Before we get back into an Island mentality, it is worth remembering that the invasion of Iraq is still a vastly controversial issue, not just in the UK, but internationally. Bush is far from being off the hook over Iraq. The Hutton report does not make the case for war though that is likely to be forgotten in the ensuing days, nor does the Hutton report make of Tony Blair a better Prime Minister than he was before it was published. The issues have not gone away and nothing has been resolved.

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