Whitewash

Greg Dyke has just resigned, and the longer the day goes on the more the Hutton Report leaves a bad taste in my mouth - the Independent lead with 'Whitewash' today (see below) - and it seems unbelievable that the blame has been put so squarely at the foot of the BBC (incidentally, the ITV news last night was positively gleeful) and none at the government, who only 'subconsciously' influenced the dodgy dossier (this despite explicit emails from Campbell ordering that the wording be 'strengthened'). Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian points out that the whole thing is reminiscent of Lord Denning's enquiry into the Profumo affair, which concluded at the time that "people of much eminence" were not capable of acting improperly. Now, of course, we know very different.