Oh god, this return to Political Gert just isn't working. Of course the Hutton Report is desperately important.
Or is it? I just can't bear to read the detailed analysis, let alone the actual report, of an enquiry into a very narrow and arguably esoteric event. Obviously, the death of David Kelly was sad - for those who knew him it was deeply tragic. But, as far as I can gather from the skim reading I have done, the Hutton enquiry looked specifically at a piece of journalism that was at best, ill-judged, at worst, deeply unprofessional. Not the first time that someone has been deeply unprofessional. And still the world continues to turn.
There has been insufficient analysis of why we even went to war in the first place. Just for the record, I happen to think that Tony in his naive idealistic mode really believed that he was on a mission to rid the world of evil - an admirable quality - but no one had the guts to tell him what us cynical plebs knew instinctively - it was way more complicated than that. I understand and applaud Tony's desire to get rid of Saddam Hussein, whose brutality is without question and deserves no apologia, no relativism, no "yes, buts..."
However, I know, and it frustrates me that my Prime Minister doesn't seem to, that no action takes place in a vacuum. Taken in isolation, getting rid of Saddam was obviously, in itself, a jolly good thing. But in the grown-up world, it has consequences, some of them desperately awful. And I was never convinced that there was sufficient consideration of the consequences.
So the headline turns into Crisis cuts through the BBC
Alastair Campbell had to resign as PM's Official Spoke, because, so the clich� said, "When the spin doctor becomes the story, the spin doctor has to go."
But when the BBC becomes the story, can the BBC resign?
I am terrified at the possible consequences of this. I love the BBC, and I strongly believe that I own it. I feel free to criticise it, because overall, I think it is a wonderful thing. I am frightened by the Murdoch-inspired attacks on it (incidentally, although I detest Murdoch, I do believe that he has a moral duty to constructively criticise the Beeb).
People rage against the philosophical anomaly of the licence fee. It is, in effect, a taxation. It would be impossible to set up a broadcasting corporation to be funded on this basis now. I become frustrated by the 'dumbing down' of television, and the fact that the glories that used to belong on BBC2 or even BBC1 are now on BBC4.
More specifically, I do so passionately believe in the supremacy of BBC News. Time and again, it is the news broadcaster that actually provides thoughtful analysis (I can't watch Sky News for longer than the headlines) ; it's the BBC that keeps up an army of reporters in remote places; it's the BBC that brings the stories that dominate more than just the disposable rolling news agenda.
I fear that the days of the BBC in its current form are numbered. And we will never love it as much as we do after its demise.
