Hutton fallout
From Judith Bell Sir: Mr Blair has graciously accepted apologies from the BBC for an erroneous report made by one of its journalists.
Perhaps Mr Blair would now apologise to those bereaved by the ever mounting death toll of soldiers in the Iraqi war into which he led this country on the erroneous information of immediate danger from weapons of mass destruction.
Judith Bell
Cranleigh, Surrey
From Herb Greer Sir: Peter Oborne adds to the deafening noise of goalposts being shifted after the Hutton report CA disaster for British public life', 31 January). The inquiry was really about the blame for Kelly's death. The press, the BBC and certainly Mr Oborne clearly hoped that the evidence and conclusions would nail Tony Blair for that. The 'unbalanced' complaints really mean that Lord Hutton did not come up with the hoped-for conclusion.
As we used to say where I come from (Santa Fe), tough shit. Kelly broke the rules and brought down a ton of bricks on his own head. Sadly, it crushed him. That was no one's fault but his own. The conspiracy theorists and their indictment of Blair for remote-control murder fell flat. So something else had to be scraped up. Neat two-step shift to the 45-minutes issue, the war in Iraq, etc. Vide Clare Short in the Times and Boris Johnson in the Telegraph. Their weaselly crap about Gilligan's mendacity being 'essentially correct' now stinks up the public space. What is being defended is not the independence of the BBC, but its habit of arrogance. A bit of accountability may now ensue, and that can only be a good thing.
Herb Greer
Salisbury, Wiltshire
From Valerie E. Stanley Sir: I want to tell you that I would trust the BBC much, much more than Tony Blair. It is obvious that the Hutton report was very biased. The point missed about Mr Gilligan's report is that he was right!
Valerie E. Stanley
Exmouth. Devon
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