HUTTON'S FANTASY POLITICS
Britain's chattering classes are enjoying the spectacle of the government's spin-doctors on the dissecting table of Lord Hutton's enquiry. Having pointedly withheld their support for the British contribution to the war in Iraq, the government's critics in the media are pleased to see Hoon, Campbell and this week Blair on the rack. Though one of the regulators of Iraq's twelve-yearlong blockade, David Kelly's subsequent qualms about the war make him an emblem for the anti-war movement. In death, Kelly exercises a greater influence over the government's fortunes than he ever did in life. By contrast, the living players all find their actions minutely examined for evidence of mere earthly motives.
The Hutton enquiry serves the purpose of letting off steam after middle England's anger built up over the government's unwillingness to listen to the anti-war protests. Hutton holds out the promises that it will fulfil all the fantasies of the government's critics in the intelligentsia.
The chief fantasy is that there is a secret hidden deep within number ten that explains why this Labour government insisted on going to war alongside the Republican-led USA. In fact, there is no secret. It was quite possible that the British political elite could have chosen - as the French did - to abstain from the US war drive. It is pretty much as Blair has already said. His aim was to take the anti-war movement and face it down, to avoid the charge of bending to readily to the popular will. That was how Blair chose to react to the political challenge of popular disaffection with the US.
The second fantasy provoked by the Hutton enquiry is that the ruling classes can be stopped in their tracks as long as the dirty secrets they hide are exposed. Like the plot of too many political thrillers, the enquiry seems to be closing in on a connection between a man killed in the woods and executive power. But the only connection finally is the one that Kelly made himself, when he took his own life. If the evidence suggests that the government bullied people, that in itself is not exactly earth-shattering news.
The fantasy that the exposure of a single lie can check a government is one that arises out of a passive relationship between the governed and the governing. It side-steps the difficult business of building political alternatives to the government. The underlying sense of hurt on the part of the anti-war movement is that they were not listened to. Though it galvanised large demonstrations, the anti-war movement failed to create institutional roots, principally because it offered no political alternative to the government over Iraq. Now the Hutton enquiry fills the gap, seeming to promise pay-back against Blair - except that it will do no such thing.
The last fantasy of the Hutton enquiry is that of the committee room/rule book approach to politics, so deeply entrenched in the British outlook. Recoiling from open conflict, the British prefer to see people brought to book, and imagine that officialdom can resolve all problems in an orderly way. The culmination of that fantasy is that the Ulster Judge Lord Hutton will become an instrument of fair play. It is of course possible that judges might seize upon a chance to enlarge their authority over elected government, but that is not likely to be in the long-term interests of the people.
-- James Heartfield