Democracy at work

As the UK Government controversially refuses to release minutes of two Cabinet meetings held a few days prior to the War in Iraq, two conflicting reports as to the reasons for this action.

Jack Straw is reported as saying:

Cabinet minutes cannot be published because you have to preserve Cabinet confidentiality and robust decision-making.

Clare Short, who resigned as International Development Secretary after the war and was present at both meetings, is reported as saying:

The bitter irony is that what they are doing is concealing the fact there was no robust decision-making. The minutes will reveal there was no real Cabinet discussion about the Iraq War.

One or other has to be being somewhat economical with the truth. Are we heading for a future statement of ‘maybe I missspoke’, or perhaps a debate on the technical definition of ‘discussion’?

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