The Iraq inquiry is light on documents. Here’s why

I mentioned yesterday that the Chilcot inquiry didn’t appear to be coughing up many documents compared with Lord Hutton’s inquiry.

The first day we were given a map and a list of UN resolutions. Nick Clegg brought this up in Prime Minister’s Questions and said the government had effectively stopped the inquiry from publishing the documents referred to in evidence.

You can see here the government document that Nick Clegg has laid his hands on (see section seven).

Most of the damage done to the government in the Hutton inquiry came not from the cross-examination, certainly not from Lord Hutton’s own conclusions, but from the documents, memos, emails, draft diaries, government papers, that poured out every day.

The whole experience gave Whitehall the heeby-jeebies and was NOT replicated by the Butler inquiry into intelligence on Iraq, on which Sir John Chilcot sat.

Related: Iraq inquiry light on documents
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