Yes Minister
Sir Gus O'Donnell is the latest Whitehall mandarin to give evidence to the Iraq Inquiry.
The former cabinet secretary in Tony Blair's government - regrets there were not more open discussions amongst senior ministers.
He especially regrets the fact that members of the cabinet were not provided with the full text of the Attorney General's advice - on the legality of the invasion - which he ultimately backed.
Asked about the failure the failure to provide this information Sir Gus O'Donnell said:
"The ministerial code makes it clear that if there is a legal issue, the full text of the attorney general's opinion should be attached (to discussion papers)."
But a more important point is that if members of the cabinet wanted the full text of the Attorney General's advice - if they felt it to be of such crucial importance - why didn't they just demand to see the document.
After all these were all very senior and experienced Labour politicians - paid large sums of money from the public purse to do their jobs.
Surely it's reasonable to expect them to stand up and be counted - on occasion.
The truth is that if they wanted the information so badly - any one of them could simply have threatened to resign - and that would have put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Yet as it turns out - they all seemed to sit on their hands - and be wise after the event.
As time goes by the Iraq Inquiry seems like a terrible waste of time and money - with people queuing up to excuse their actions - with the great benefit of hindsight.
The former cabinet secretary in Tony Blair's government - regrets there were not more open discussions amongst senior ministers.
He especially regrets the fact that members of the cabinet were not provided with the full text of the Attorney General's advice - on the legality of the invasion - which he ultimately backed.
Asked about the failure the failure to provide this information Sir Gus O'Donnell said:
"The ministerial code makes it clear that if there is a legal issue, the full text of the attorney general's opinion should be attached (to discussion papers)."
But a more important point is that if members of the cabinet wanted the full text of the Attorney General's advice - if they felt it to be of such crucial importance - why didn't they just demand to see the document.
After all these were all very senior and experienced Labour politicians - paid large sums of money from the public purse to do their jobs.
Surely it's reasonable to expect them to stand up and be counted - on occasion.
The truth is that if they wanted the information so badly - any one of them could simply have threatened to resign - and that would have put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Yet as it turns out - they all seemed to sit on their hands - and be wise after the event.
As time goes by the Iraq Inquiry seems like a terrible waste of time and money - with people queuing up to excuse their actions - with the great benefit of hindsight.
