Norman Baker on the strange death of David Kelly

Norman Baker was my favourite Liberal Democrat MP of the party's glory years. He was a powerful campaigner, friendly and with enough quirkiness to be a true Liberal. And he had a talent for getting up the noses of all the right people.

Looking back on the death of David Kelly in 2003, it does remarkable that no inquest was held into his death. Instead, it was bundled up with Lord Hutton's inquiry into "the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly".

Those circumstances where expanded to include the intelligence reports the Blair government used to justify war in Iraq and the BBC's reporting of them. Poor Dr Kelly faded into the background.

In 2007 Norman Baker published his book The Strange Death of David Kelly. The talk in this video was recorded two years later.

If you watch it you will find that Norman's conclusion is that David Kelly was murdered. Not by the British deep state, as some like to imagine, but by the Iraqis.

Given what we now know about Russian operations in Britain, this is not far fetched. 

We should be worrying that the British authorities still seem remarkably relaxed about the number of people who have crossed Putin who keel over and die on our shores.

Anyway, a few years after recording this, Norman became a Home Office minister. It's a funny old world.

David Heath and Jeremy Browne were victims of an earlier reshuffle

I was pleased to see Norman Baker moved to the Home Office in the recent Lib Dem reshuffle. And I note that many of those poking fun at his book on the death of Dr David Kelly – step forward Jonathan Freedland and John Rentoul – are Blairite armchair warriors seeking to refight the invasion of Iraq.

But I do feel sorry for Jeremy Browne, who was sacked to make way for Norman Baker. Because in the previous reshuffle, which took place in September 2012, he was moved from the Foreign Office. And he had given every appearance of being at home there, which he never did at the Home Office.

And Jeremy Browne was not the only Lib Dem who was moved from a job where he was at home to one where he was not in that reshuffle and then sacked this week.

David Heath was by all accounts a success as deputy Leader of the House and, as ‘a good House of Commons man’, he certainly looked happy in the role.

But in September of last year he was moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 

Fair enough for a rural MP, you may say, but he was given the worst hospital pass of all time and was made the minister for shooting badgers. I don't think anyone could be happy in that role.

Now Dan Rogerson has been appointed to DEFRA in his place. I don’t know if he now has responsibilities for the badger cull – it is possible that they have moved the goalposts.

That September 2012 was not just a misfortune for these individual ministers: it was a misfortune for the Liberal Democrats as a whole. Because, despite everything, I like my party being in government and I was sorry to see us giving up any representation in important, grown-up departments like Defence and the Foreign Office.

Why did we do this? The theory heard most often is that Nick Clegg was so anxious to secure the return of David Laws that he was forced to concede a lot of ground in return.

I hope this is true. If Nick gave that ground of his own free will we really should be worrying.

There should be an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly

The attorney general has rejected calls for an inquest into the death in 2003 of government scientist Dr David Kelly, reports BBC News.

But there should be an inquest, for both reasons of principle and pragmatic reasons.

The principle is that all suspicious deaths should be the subject of an inquest. It is for those who oppose an inquiry to make their case. The argument that Kelly's death was touched upon by the Hutton Inquiry, which was concerned with much else besides, does not convince. And the precedent that inquests should not take place in deaths that are politically embarrassing to the government is not one that should be allowed to become established.

The pragmatic reason is that if you want to put an end to conspiracy theories, it is not a good idea to avoid holding an inquest in a case that has done more then most to inspire them.

David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and mingling

The Independent on Sunday reported this morning that:

Nick Clegg has told his ministers to "mingle" at the Liberal Democrat conference next week, to avoid the impression that being in government has gone to their heads.

Paddy Ashdown was the great mingler among senior Lib Dems. At Conference you would often find him in the bars in the evening with his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, chatting with delegates.

This made a hugely favourable impression because of the approach of Paddy's predecessor, the last Liberal leader David Steel.

Steel did not mingle at all. You only ever saw him at the centre of a large entourage as it swept through the Conference venue. Advisers, spin doctors, bag carriers, interns, speechwriters, minor celebrities, heads of state of small Commonwealth countries... if the party was doing well it could take several minutes to pass.

Paddy's approach was undoubtedly the right one. So Liberal Democrat ministers should mingle for all they are worth in Liverpool.

13 doctors demand inquest into Dr David Kelly's death

Intriguing news from tomorrow's Mail on Sunday. A group of doctors are mounting a legal challenge to overturn Lord Hutton's finding that Dr David Kelly committed suicide. No proper inquest into his death was ever held.

The newspaper says the doctors have:

compiled a detailed medical dossier that rejects the Hutton conclusion on the grounds that a cut to the ulnar artery, which is small and difficult to access, could not have caused death.

It will be used by their lawyers to demand a formal inquest and the release of Dr Kelly's autopsy report, which has never been published. It will also be sent to Sir John Chilcot's forthcoming inquiry into the Iraq War.

The 12-page opinion, a copy of which has been seen by The Mail on Sunday, concludes: "The bleeding from Dr Kelly's ulnar artery is highly unlikely to have been so voluminous and rapid that it was the cause of death."

We advise the instructing solicitors to obtain the autopsy reports so that the concerns of a group of properly interested medical specialists can be answered."

The Lib Dem MP for Lewes, Norman Baker, has written a book on the Kelly case.

Norman Baker on the death of Dr David Kelly

The Lib Dem MP for Lewes has an article on Lib Dem Voice to mark the publication of his book The Strange Death of Dr David Kelly.

Norman writes:

What is certain is that the conclusions of the Hutton Inquiry are an insult to the intelligence of the British people, and because of this, this is unfinished business. It will remain so until we have a proper inquest into the death of Dr Kelly, and a proper full-scale public inquiry into the disastrous and dishonest decision by the Blair Government to take us into an illegal war in Iraq.

Norman Baker: The Strange Death of David Kelly

Yesterday's Sunday Times had a respectful review of Norman Baker's new book The Strange Death of David Kelly. The review was written by Nick Rufford, who says:

At least half the readers of this book will suspect Kelly was murdered; for them, Baker provides plenty of support.

For those who share my scepticism, however, it’s still an important work. You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that something murky was going on behind closed doors in Whitehall. Hutton’s remit was too narrow ever to get to the bottom of it.

As an exploration of what happens when politicians bend the evidence to fit their aims, hoping that the end will justify the means, Baker’s book is hard to beat.

David Kelly: The Conspiracy Files

I have just watched this programme. I can't say I was convinced that Dr Kelly's death was not suicide, despite the mighty presence of Norman Baker.

Still, here is a link to Rowena Thursby's blog for those of you who want to read more on the case.

Norman Baker: "David Kelly was murdered"

The BBC website carries a preview of The Conspiracy Files, which is being shown today (Sunday) at 9 p.m. on BBC 2. It quotes Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP for Lewes and all-round Liberal hero:

Mr Baker, who has spent a year investigating the case, believes there is enough evidence to suggest that the scientist did not kill himself.

The Liberal Democrat MP said toxicology reports suggested there was not enough painkiller in Dr Kelly's system to kill him, and the method he had apparently chosen to commit suicide was not a recognised or effective one.

"I'm satisfied it was not suicide. And after that you're left with the conclusion that his life was deliberately taken by others," he tells The Conspiracy Files.

He tells the programme it has been suggested to him that the weapons scientist was assassinated.

Speaking last week on BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr Baker said he was not ready to reveal all the evidence he has unearthed, but would consider passing a file to the police in due course.

Paranoid nonsense? Remember the wise words of Matthew Parris quoted on Norman's own website:

"You underestimate him at your peril... He has a habit of being right. He sticks to his guns and I think his constituents are very lucky to have him."

Thanks to Iain Dale.

Dr David Kelly

Last month I reported that Norman Baker (Lib Dem MP for Lewes) has published a dossier on the discrepancies in the official account of the death of Dr David Kelly.

There is now a blog devoted to the case. It is written by Rowena Thursby on behalf of the Kelly Investigation Group.

Thanks to The UK Daily Pundit.

Norman Baker on David Kelly's death

When Norman Baker left the Lib Dem front bench he announced that he would be investigating the death of Dr David Kelly.

Today's Mail on Sunday reports the progress he has made:

The dossier compiled by the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes shows that the method of suicide said to have been chosen by Dr Kelly, far from being common as was claimed at the time, was in fact unique.

Dr Kelly was the only person in the United Kingdom that year deemed to have died from severing the ulnar artery in his wrist, a particularly difficult and painful process as the artery is deep and Dr Kelly had only a blunt garden knife.

The MP reveals that the Oxfordshire coroner held an 'unusual' meeting with Home Office officials before he determined the cause of Dr Kelly's death.

And he claims that a 'cosy cabal' of Mr Blair's friends, including Peter Mandelson and Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, hand-picked Lord Hutton, a retired Law Lord from Northern Ireland, to lead the official investigation in 2003.