A great editorial from the UK Telegraph about the David Kelly affair that reflects much of the views of the UK press about this murky & unseemly affair that has lead to this tragic death.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/07/19/dl1901.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/07/19/ixopinion.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=139727Although no one yet knows the full facts, it seems that Dr David Kelly killed himself on Thursday, and it is natural to ask why. It is hard to think of an answer that does not shame this Government (of which Alastair Campbell is the Director of Communications and Strategy) and its methods.
Men like Dr Kelly enter government service in this country because they feel that they can contribute their expertise. By background, they are academic, and in general do not have a political motive in their careers. They gain their fulfilment from knowing that their knowledge is useful for their country. Dr Kelly's was very useful indeed. A microbiologist, he knew as much as anyone about the nature of Saddam Hussein's programme of weapons of mass destruction (a programme, by the way, that he took very seriously). What such people do not expect is to become, in the now famous words of one member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, "the fall guy". Politics is nothing to do with them, and, when its crazy games engulf them, they are unprepared, angry, frightened. It would seem that Dr Kelly was frightened to death.
Alastair Campbell should leave his post, and Mr Blair should then abolish the system that he himself instituted by which political appointees (at present Mr Campbell and Jonathan Powell) are allowed to give orders to career civil servants. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, should be held to account for his own role in the hounding of Dr Kelly. Public servants need a public assurance that they will be treated with respect and that any suspected misconduct will be investigated fairly, rather than leaked to compliant newspapers. The Prime Minister himself needs to make some public declaration, backed up with deeds, to show that the era of spin is over. And the BBC needs to reflect on the "collateral damage" its style of reporting can cause.
What started as a sort of game has now turned into a terrible reality, with real casualties. Spin doctors who thrive on metaphors of machismo and of the destruction of opponents find that the metaphors are turning literal. The sort of people who saw September 11 as "a good day to bury bad news" now watch, we hope in horror, as his grieving family prepares to bury Dr Kelly.
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