Ordinary Gweilo

An interesting follow-up to the furore about the Hutton Inquiry. It seems that, according to The Guardian Lord Hutton is surprised that Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke felt the need to resign in reponse to his criticism. He apparently did not mean the following passage to be taken as a general criticism of the BBC:

Therefore in the very unusual and specific circumstances relating to Mr Gilligan’s broadcasts, I consider that the governors are to be criticised for themselves failing to make more detailed investigations into whether this allegation reported by Mr Gilligan was properly supported by his notes, and for failing to give proper and adequate consideration to whether the BBC should publicly acknowledge that this very grave allegation should not be broadcast.

The key phrase being “very unusual and specific circumstances”.

The irony being that what Lord Hutton may have needed was a ‘spin doctor’ to tell the press what he had intended. Or perhaps instead of reading out his conclusions in full (in an unexciting monotone) he should have stated his main findings much more briefly.