Nick Cohen on Kelly

The BBC, the press and politicians betrayed David Kelly, says Nick Cohen on CiF. Yes, yes - guilt is diffuse, so nobody can be held to account. Standard limp lefty ethics. Heard it all before, ad nauseam.

But Cohen's argument - that it is ridiculous to blame Blair - trips over the internal contradictions of his article. Who expressed a desire to "fuck Gilligan" (the BBC journopuke who broadcast the story about Campbell having "sexed up" the dossier presented to Parliament to justify the invasion of Iraq) and kicked off the whole witch-hunt? Geoff Hoon, Blair's Secretary for Defence.Who was it who set out to pillory Kelly, once identified as Gilligan's source? Alastair Campbell, Blair's press fixer. Who presented that dossier to Parliament, knowing it to be "economical with the truth"? Prime Minister Blair.

Beyond the narrow issue of the hapless Kelly, Blair has steadfastly refused to admit that Campbell's dossier was a load of crap, Blair promoted the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee who let Campbell edit the JIC's findings, Blair undertook to join the invasion without seeking any quid pro quo from President Bush, and Blair failed to get the MoD and the Treasury to work together, leading to military humiliation and, ultimately, the diplomatic catastrophe of the USA concluding that Britain was no longer a dependable ally.    

Damn it - if the buck does not stop with Blair, then nobody is responsible for anything, ever. 

Sure, the BBC behaved with its customary mixture of institutional arrogance and moral cowardice, and the press behaved like a pack of hyenas. Nothing unusual there. Likewise Kelly was doing no more than Whitehall bureaucrats do every day to discredit some government decision or other they perceive as damaging to their departmental interest. They all deserve to be sacked, but since it seems that is politically impossible the best that can be done is to punish a particularly egregious offender from time to time.

Cohen misses the point: blaming Blair for the death of Kelly is a distraction from the central issue, which is that he should be impeached for a massive failure of public policy that took place entirely on his watch and obedient to his will. Even the dossier was the product of a personal political failure: all he had to do was to make the invasion a vote of confidence, and most of the Labour rebels would have fallen into line.

No chance he would be found guilty, but it would permit all the accusations to be dealt with and achieve the kind of closure that will never come about for as long as moral relativism is permitted to smother justice.