Kelly Group
Experts question Kelly 'suicide'
Wed Jan 28 14:08:32 2004
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Experts question Kelly 'suicide'
4.06PM, 27 Jan 2004

On the day the Hutton Report was delivered to Downing Street amid tight security, doubt among medical experts is growing over whether David Kelly killed himself.

The experts have questioned whether the weapons expert committed suicide after they detailed flaws in the pathologist's explanation for his death.

In a letter to The Guardian, they said the cause of death as presented to the Hutton Inquiry was "improbable" although they said they were not accusing anyone of murder.

The specialists, including a trauma consultant and an anesthetist, believed Dr Kelly could not have died from cutting his wrist and taking an overdose of painkillers as set out in the inquiry.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner, who is considering holding a full inquest into the death, has received numerous letters questioning the account given to the inquiry.

Consultant surgeon David Halpin said he was not accusing anyone of murder but the cut to Dr Kelly's wrist was unlikely to have been fatal.

"The picture is not a happy one. We would like the inquest reopened in this very important case." One of Dr Kelly's closest friends said he had received death threats.

Lord Hutton will deliver a "substantial summary" of the report at 12.30pm tomorrow.

The actual document will then be formally published at 1.30pm, ensuring that it is his statement which will set the tone for the ensuing media coverage.

The Speaker, Michael Martin, will interrupt Commons business at around 2pm so that Mr Blair can make a statement in the House on the report. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, will make a statement in the Lords.

The widow of Dr David Kelly's also got a copy along with other key players in the inquiry. The Lords will debate the Hutton report next Wednesday.

This is expected to be opened by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton and takes place on the same day as the Commons' debate on the issue.

Dr Kelly was found dead near his home last July after being named as the source of a BBC report claiming the Government "sexed up" a dossier on the threat from Iraq.

Note: this report appeared as a direct result of the efforts of the Kelly Group. Please let me know if you see reports like this elsewhere - send me the urls. Thanks.

RowenaThursby@onetel.net.uk


Jan 27: Blair gets first look at Hutton report
http://www.itv.com/news/566146.html
Jan 27: What will the Hutton Report decide?
http://www.itv.com/news/566146.html

http://www.itv.com/news/429586.html

So secret is this, everybody - all the key players - have been asked to take a legal undertaking that they won't leak the contents to anybody
http://www.itv.com/news/572336.html

What will the Hutton Report decide?
1.30PM, 27 Jan 2004

ITV News correspondent John Ray reports from Downing Street on what questions the Hutton Report will answer.

Never has a report been so eagerly awaited. Never have the contents of a report been so closely guarded a secret, and it is, of course, the Prime Minister who has the most to lose in all this.

If the report says he lied to Parliament about going to war with Iraq, he'll resign. There are equally tough questions about his role in the naming of Dr Kelly.

Will the report decide that his former spin doctor Alastair Campbell did indeed 'sex-up' that Iraq dossier?

The family of Dr David Kelly will want to know if he was a victim in all this? Was he forced in to a position where he took his own life and what role did he play in these tragic events?

A lot of people believe that the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon will be forced to take the blame and finally will the report point the finger at Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter? Did he get crucial facts wrong in that story which accused the Government of exaggerating the case for war?

Those questions will be answered in public tomorrow but behind me now senior ministers are gathering to start digesting this report.

So secret is this, everybody - all the key players - have been asked to take a legal undertaking that they won't leak the contents to anybody.

Jan 27: Blair gets first look at Hutton report
http://www.itv.com/news/429578.html

Government wins battle over variable tuition fees
12.06AM, 28 Jan 2004

Tony Blair has scraped through in the vote on university tuition fees by only five votes, 316 to 311.

The Government majority of five will mean the Prime Minister's Higher Education Bill will get a second reading.

Victory for Tony Blair and his Cabinet came after a day of high drama at Westminster which began when rebel leader, the former Chief Whip Nick Brown, switched allegiance to the Government.

But the Prime Minister and Education Secretary Charles Clarke still face a tough battle getting the Higher Education Bill over the rest of its parliamentary assault course.

And before that, Mr Blair, having suffered easily the biggest backbench rebellion of his leadership so far, has to survive the second of this week's make-or-break set-piece events.

MPs and peers opposed to giving universities the ability to vary their fees between nothing and £3,000-a-year could still attempt to overturn this aspect of the legislation in later Commons and Lords debates.

Opening the debate on the Bill, Mr Clarke had told MPs that that allowing universities to charge more than the proposed £3,000 maximum "forms no part of this Government's agenda".

Mr Clarke said allowing universities to vary their fees was a "key component" of the Bill.

The Government could probably have saved weeks of trouble getting top-up fees past the Commons if it had agreed to drop variability in favour of an increase in the current £1,125-a-year flat rate fee.

First, the £3,000 cap would apply for the whole of the next Parliament, Mr Clarke said.

The Government would amend the Bill to ensure that no vote on lifting the cap could take place until 2010. Secondly, raising the fee would require a debate and vote in the Commons.

And before any vote could take place, an independent commission would report on the impact of fees in 2009, he went on.