What Goes Around ...

Wednesday, 12 March 2003

Andrew Wilkie's resignation from the Office of National Assessments has come in for a lot of comment in the blogosphere today, with Tim Dunlop, Gareth Parker and Gary Sauer-Thompsom all witing considered pieces on the subject.

The government has been playing down the significance of Mr Wilkie's resignation. One of the claims being made is that Mr Wilkie was not very well-placed to comment on Government policy on Iraq as he did not have access to all the intelligence that is regularly reported to the Prime Minister. This is pretty much the exact opposite of the Prime Minister's story on "A Certain Maritime Incident" - back then, it was the bureaucrats and political minders (and possibly a certain ex-member of Parliament) who knew more than the PM and didn't bother to tell him. It's good to see that the Government has learnt something in the interim.

Update (Thursday, 20 March 2003): it's taken a while but I've finally achieved a major milestone: the first ice-pick joke in a comments thread. Congratulations, "Cassandra", on a pithy piece of original wit. I'm sure that as soon as I identify the non sequitur you refer to, I'll feel cut to the quick.