doctor scrumpy

Half of Britons believe the Hutton inquiry into the death of Iraq weapons expert David Kelly was a whitewash, according to a newspaper poll.

The NOP survey for the London Evening Standard said 49 percent agreed with the question "do you agree or disagree that the report was a whitewash".

Four out of 10 of those questioned said they disagreed and 11 percent said they didn't know in a poll of 521 people conducted on Wednesday.

Hutton's report cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair of lying to parliament over the Iraq war and piled blame on the BBC, which broadcast a report accusing the government of exaggerating the case for war.

Seven out of 10 of those polled said there should be an independent inquiry into the reasons the government gave for the war.

A third said they were now less likely to vote for Blair, compared to three percent who said it was more likely.

Fifty-six percent said it was unfair the BBC received most of the blame, against 35 percent who said it was fair.

Half said they were unconvinced by Hutton's verdict that the government had not acted in a "dishonourable or duplicitous" manner, compared to 36 percent who backed the judge.

The poll echoes newspaper scepticism in the wake of the Hutton report's publication on Wednesday.

The Independent's blank front page bore the word "Whitewash?" in small red letters, while the tabloid Daily Mail's headline asked "Justice?".

Conservative legislator and Daily Telegraph columnist Boris Johnson said Blair had been "sprayed with more whitewash than a Costa Brava timeshare".

dgsyd1

I don't think there's any doubt that the BBC made mistakes in this whole affair, but from my point of view it's incresingly looking like the corporation got screwed. As several of the papers back home have said, the Hutton report was essentially a whitewash. It will be a shame if the BBC has to give up some of its journalistic independence in the aftermath of the Hutton enquiry.
As expected, certain parts of the press (ie. the Murdoch papers) have been heaping abuse on the BBC for the last couple of days. This to me is more than a little ironic, as they themselves do exactly what the BBC was accused of on a daily basis.

Taffyles

I've been watching the events unfold on the Beeb website as much as possible today- its sickening. Hutton's report was unbalanced and grossly unfair. The Guardian is reporting that 3 times as many people trust the BBC rather than the government. Gee wonder why- guess they're not all as stupid as Blair thinks. I'm really angry about it all, so I'll shut up.

Patrick

Why would anyone be surprised? Any government or independant inquery, whether it was UK or US has found the government innocent, it wouldn't do to make a government guilty of doing something wrong and making the people even less trusting.

Waco - the FTA went in all guns blazing when they should of knocked on the door, this cause 2 of their men to get shot and the FBI to be involved, the FBI then drove tanks into the building, purposely set fires and killed innocent people. The whole thing was the fault of government agencies and their gung ho tactics but they (and the Davidians) where found innocent.

Hilsborough - the police were found innocent of any wrong doing and where cleared in the deaths of 98 Liverpool Fans - and my nuts are made of cream cheese.

The murder of civilians in Vietnam by US soldiers.

Attica Prison Riot

There are many more, too many to go into here, where government is involved it will be vindicated because it is the one that appoints these people to do the inquiry in the first place.

Patrick

doctor scrumpy

The 96 who died at Hillsborough were killed as a result of more than just the police's errors.

The fans who turned up at the last minute had a part to blame too, as did the FA & Sheffield Weds. It is too easy to say it was all the fault of the police. Sadly, like a cake it took a lot of ingridients to cause this horror.

Patrick

But to find no-one guilty, and to clear the police completly was wrong! The police wouldn't let people onto the pitch when they where being crushed, the police ignored warnings and tell tale signs, the police lost video camera evidence and they lied at the inquiry. I lived in Sheffield (a stones throw from the stadium) and I can tell you the people of Sheffield where not happy that the police where cleared of all wrong doing.

True there was more to it than that, but to say the police had zero blame is wrong.