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While I was away, the Mail titles continued their tasteless
obsession with the David Kelly conspiracy cult. The
Mail on Sunday carried an interview
with Detective Constable Graham Coe, the police officer who found
Kelly’s body (right). Coe does not suspect foul play and said:
In my view he took his own life. Only he will know why he did
that.
Hence the Mail on Sunday’s headline, “Detective who found weapons
expert David Kelly’s body raises questions over his death”.
Apparently, there was not much blood at the scene. This has long
(seven years) been a core part of the conspiracy theorists’ case, as
repeated by nine of them in a letter to
The Times today.* Why you would
expect to see much blood on porous earth has long (seven years) puzzled
normal people. As Kelly had also swallowed a bottle of co-proxamol, it
is in any case beside the point.
The other puzzle is why The Times published the letter. It is not
as if it would print one from supporters of David Icke, who are also
convinced that Kelly was murdered, and who believe that the world is
ruled by two-legged lizards from the constellation Draco, inhabiting the
lower level of the fourth dimension – that is, the one closest to
physical reality.
But it is the Mail’s obsession that is most offensive. It echoes
the Express’s long-running compulsion to put the thinnest of non-stories
about
Madeleine McCann on its front page in its callous
indifference to the grief of a family. This time, the Mail on Sunday did
at least perform the public service of securing a quotation from Norman
Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport minister, which confirms his
unsuitability for membership of the House of Commons, let alone of the
Government:
This is important new evidence, which I am sure the Attorney
General will want to investigate. It raises serious questions about the
conclusions reached by Lord Hutton.
Anyone who wants to know why the Kelly conspiracy theories are
hogwash should read my previous posts on the
subject; the article in The
Independent on Sunday by Tom Mangold, investigative reporter and
friend of Kelly’s; and David Aaronovitch’s superb
Voodoo Histories. Aaronovitch’s
challenge to any of the fruitcakes who espouse the cult, to whose number
I should add Nick Ferrari of LBC, to take part in a public debate is as
yet unanswered.
*A letter reported, as an “Exclusive”, on the front page of today’s
Daily Mail.
Photograph: Les Wilson |
