Kelly didn't stand a chance against the frenzy of No 10

[T_i_B]

Out of control spin has resulted in a British government that is out of control.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1001345,00.html

A source, a source, my kingdom for a source, said Blair and his people. Once the source appeared, and as long as he was sufficiently unimportant, the credence of the critics of 45 would be destroyed. Enter David Kelly, an obscure though not unimportant consultant to both the Foreign Office and the MoD, who volunteered to his bosses that he had talked to Gilligan and maybe helped him on the story, without being his prime source. The honourable act of a man who had no idea he would shortly be thrust into the maelstrom that uniquely surrounds a prime minister who has decided that his integrity, if not his political life, is under threat.

There are secondary players in this sordid game. The BBC's and Gilligan's performance on the question of the source has been shifty. No doubt they had to be careful. Confidentiality is a sacred and essential rule. But when Kelly first appeared, they said the real source was in a different department, implying an intelligence official rather than a defence consultant.

The recent behaviour of the foreign affairs committee of the Commons has been more ignominious. Its first report on the origins of the Iraq war was measured enough. It did not deliver all the exonerations for which Downing Street was looking. But then its chairman and Labour members seem to have got caught up in the frenzy of No 10, suddenly calling Gilligan for a second interrogation and coming out from behind closed doors to smear his reputation. Coupled with their gratuitous bullying of David Kelly to name himself as the culprit, these second-division politicians showed little respect for natural justice. Most of the Labour ones sounded like agents of No 10. They now seek a statutory ban on journalists having the nerve to conceal their sources from so august a body as a Commons select committee.

But the most eloquent message concerns the Blair government. It must be right at all times. Above all, the integrity of the leader can never be challenged. He never did hype up intelligence. He didn't take Britain to war on any other than the stated terms. Any suggestion of half-truth, or disguised intention, or concealed Bushite promises is the most disgraceful imaginable charge that deserves a state response that knows no limit.