Two tragedies

Two tragedies, both the subject of long running inquiries into the behaviour of public servants.

The first tragedy was the death of a very ill, handicapped child in a hospital in Leicester, in 2011, some four years ago. A criminal court, after some three weeks deliberations, has now concluded that there was criminal negligence on the part of two health workers, one of whom pleaded tiredness in mitigation. For my part, I am not at all sure that the criminal justice system is the right way to deal with cases of this sort.

The second tragedy was the invasion of Iraq. An inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, a former public servant himself, has now promised that it will report, in around 2 million words, some time next year, more than ten years after most of the events in question. My concern today is not with the timetable but with the 2 million. 4,000 pages of 50 lines at 10 words to the line. Say 5 copies of 'Ulysses' - and who knows whether the Chilcot prose will be easier or harder going than that of Joyce. I had thought that the idea of an inquiry was to come up with some answers for citizens. But if his answers are going to run to this many words, we are clearly going to have to rely on intermediaries, perhaps those in the pay of Murdoch and his clan, to read them for us. Not a very satisfactory conclusion at all - although I see I was rather more positive about the business after audience participation in the process 4 years ago. See reference 2.

Just presently, it seems to me that the UK and the US made a terrible mistake a long time ago. What good are another 2 million words on the subject going to do now, never mind next year? But perhaps I had better reserve judgement until we see what Chilcot comes up with.

I remain unhappy about how we go about looking into mistakes, tragedies and disasters. We generate a lot of hot air, a lot of coverage in the media, a lot of fees for lawyers and perhaps procure some satisfaction for the victims in the process. But surely there is a better way?

Reference 1: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/.

Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=blair+witch.