Were you listening, Gordon?

I've been looking back at some of the Comment is Free pieces I've written in the last year on the subject of the Iraq inquiry. I think I've been pretty consistent: I've never held up that much hope of it getting any nearer the truth than previous inquiries, especially if it's another establishment stitch-up.

In November, I asked what is Brown afraid of?

it appears that Brown plans to buy enough time through dithering to make sure that any political fallout comes after the next election.

I remain unconvinced that a new establishment inquiry will get to the bottom of the Iraq scandal, particularly if it is largely held behind closed doors. If there is a Hutton-style inquiry with witnesses questioned publicly, that should throw up some embarrassing moments, not to mention new leads for investigative journalists. But only the Lib Dems and smaller parties really want this type of inquiry. It looks as if Labour and the Tories will agree on a closed format something like the post-Falklands Franks inquiry. After the openness of Hutton and the freedom of information act, that looks 25 years out of date.

In March I said that if the government thinks a secret inquiry into the Iraq war will restore public confidence, it's very wrong. Last month I predicted that:

a head of steam is building up to ensure that the public get the inquiry that they want, not the one that Straw, Brown and David Miliband are planning to give them.

Perhaps Gordon should have listened.

On CiF this morning...

I've got a piece picking up on my New Statesman story published yesterday. It asks whether the threat of public transport chaos will be the third Heathrow runway's Achilles heel or whether the government's new infrastructure planning commission will gloss over such concerns in deference to stated government policy.

I'm not sure if it's as good a way to challenge government greenwash as that demonstrated by Plane Stupid protester Leila Deen this morning.

Also on CIF, Richard Norton-Taylor has a good piece pointing out - as I have done - how useless the Intelligence and Security Committee is as its annual report for 2007-8 is finally published by Number 10 after Gordon Brown has censored it.

What is Brown afraid of?

I did a piece yesterday about the Iraq inquiry issue for Comment is Free but it's only just been posted.

In the meantime Andrew Grice has gone into print with this a story along the same lines.

Calling it vigilantism is too kind

My take on Lord Bingham's comments can be found on this piece on Comment is Free.

I argue that Bingham has damned Blair, Straw and Goldsmith even while assuming that they acted in good faith. But it's quite clear that they set out a year before the war to create a legal justification - but failed to do so.

On the issue of the promised Iraq Inquiry, the government will still not say whether the withdrawal of most British troops by the middle of next year will allow it to take place.

Look out for state funded PR

I've done a piece for Comment is Free today on the eco-towns story.

One of the issues I've mentioned is the tendency for the government to give money to campaigning or "third sector" organisations, which then engage in positive PR in support of their policies.

In this case the Town and Country Planning Association has been very quick to issue a press release supporting a draft policy planning statement on which the department for Communities and Local Government is supposedly consulting. As I say:

There is no suggestion of a conflict of interest here, as long as you accept that TCPA is paid to support the government policy and treat its pronouncements accordingly. It just doesn't seem right that the government's allies are trying to influence a formal consultation process before anyone else has seen the documents.

Will the market save the world?

On Comment is Free, Madeleine Bunting makes the necessary but obvious point that free market ideology is pure faith, and has been proved wrong.

What worries me is that many free market fundamentalists still think that capitalism and market mechanisms will magically provide a solution to global warming. Perhaps the realisation that this is mumbo jumbo is what will get people's heads out of the sand.

Clueless

I have a piece on Comment is Free today on the toothless, clawless and clueless Intelligence and Security Committee and Gordon Brown's half-hearted reforms.

An image problem

Speaking of class war, I've got a piece on Comment is Free about the image problem of "social housing". It's turned into a bit of a row about class etc.

A hornet's nest

I've got a piece on Comment is Free this morning about the idea that immigrants are jumping the queue for council and housing association homes.

Most of the posters are quite critical, which is interesting for a liberal paper like the Guardian. I've not been helped by a standfirst that initially substituted the actress Patricia Hodge for the politician Margaret.