A Whitewash? A U-Turn?

Going back to the Summer of 2009....

The Inquiry's hearings began last autumn with the families of ex service personnel to Iraq giving evidence. The former Prime Minister Tony Blair was also called in to give evidence at this inquiry about which there has been speculation and varied expectations from 'a whitewash' to 'a way forward'


The Prime Minister had initially planned to have an inquiry that would take all the evidence in private which was met with severe criticism across the country forcing the government to make a u-turn.The Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague described it as " a u-turn executed in stages as painful to watch as a learner driver trying to take a six point turn having started off the wrong way down a motorway". Sir John then said the inquiry would be held in public except in cases where it poses a threat to national security.

Private inquiry?

MP Jo Swinson felt that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown wanted the inquiry to be held in private.She said "I can see why they did it.It was a dreadful decision and they were both at the heart of it.Gordon Brown signed the cheques and Tony Blair was chief cheerleader for George Bush" she said.
trust

"Trust in politics is already hugely damaged by the expenses scandal and it really doesn't need a further beating which it would get from holding an inquiry in private" she said on the eve of the debate in parliament about the Inquiry's nature and scope. By having a public inquiry though,"our democracy will be strengthened" she said.