Here in the press room next door to the inquiry chamber – hacks aren’t allowed to take electronic equipment inside, so must of us are camped out in front of plasma screens showing the proceedings – there’s a somewhat peculiar atmosphere.
The Q&A thus far has been perfectly friendly, clubbable even, and here, now, today in 2009 at least the former civil servants display the urbane unflappability you’d expect of polished Whitehall mandarins.
But we have the advantage of retrospect and know how this story’s going to end; the repeated references to “drum beats” and angry voices in the background are taking on an increasingly sinister tone.