Lying in State

The huge furore surrounding the government's dossier on Weapons of Mass Destruction in the run-up to the Iraq War, and the dubious process by which the name of Dr David Kelly was released into the public domain are, shows this trenchant and alarming book, only the most recent examples of a Whitehall practice that goes back as far as World War II. When caught out in a lie or a deception, runs the policy, keep lying and dissembling, and take all possible steps to cover the whole thing up. Earlier instances include: The sinking of the General Belgrano during the Falklands War; The loss of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in the last war; The mysterious Chinook helicopter crash in Scotland; The ejection of the native inhabitants from Diego Garcia in order to hand it over to the US military; Not only is such endemic covering-up by an apparently unaccountable Whitehall machine simply undemocratic, argues Slessor: it is the cause of scandalous injustice which ruins reputations and blights lives.