Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #445988 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

About the Author
Tim Slessor is a retired television producer who was for some years senior editor of the BBC's London documentary section. The loss of his own father in the HMS Glorious disaster first prompted his quest to investigate government cover-ups.

Customer Reviews

Interesting narratives but flawed argument
Slessor's investigation into what he calls the 'Whitehall Loop' throws up some interesting points, using various case studies over the past few decades. Published before the results of the Hutton Inquiry, the book introduces some of the standard operating procedures of senior civil servants and their associated government departments in light of the David Kelly affair.

Some of the case studies Slessor chooses make for entertaining reading, and indeed his narrative style allows the arguments to gradually build up nicely. Unfortunately, however, the variety between the chapters leads to some confusion. Slessor's "loop" appears to take all forms where the MOD or other department manages to avoid investigation through one or other bureaucratic or constitutional loophole. With only short introductory and closing chapters to summarise his arguments, the book breaks down into more of a collection of vaguely related essays.

Nevertheless, the case studies offer an interesting insight into the breadth of Whitehall's dissembling. Particularly interesting is the manner in which 'sticking to the line' is so an engrained that Whitehall will not change its official stance despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, such as the chapters on the sinking of the Belgrano and the crash of Chinook ZD576. However, in the case study of the Ilois and their dispossession of Diego Garcia and nearby islands, or the personal case of Major Stankovic, it is unknown where the responsibility of Whitehall's dissembling ultimately lies.

Ultimately, Slessor's book offers an interesting overview of a number of situations in which Whitehall's lies and deceptions have come readily to the fore, but without any real cohesive argument, the book becomes nothing more than a collection of anecdotes, and realistically tells of nothing that the general public don't already know about the world of background politics.