The Spectator

Readers may feel they have had almost enough of The Spectator's 175th anniversary. Enormous and flattering articles have appeared in newspapers, including the Guardian. Spectator staff have been deployed on the airwaves, plugging merrily away. If the thought were not so appalling, one might even wonder whether there were some public-relations campaign, to 'plant' favourable items at strategic points in the media landscape. As the festivities come to their peak, routs and revels have been organised, sponsored by diamond companies and attended by Spectator-related celebrities such as Charles Moore and Nigella Lawson. Now, however, by way of a climax, a beautifully produced one-off anniversary edition is on the stands, an anthology of the best journalism of the last 175 years.

Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, gave evidence by a voice-link to the second round of hearings of the Hutton inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons. He said that the intelligence that weapons of mass destruction might be used within 45 minutes 'came from an established and reliable source, quoting a senior Iraqi military officer who was certainly in a position to know'. On being asked if it had been given undue emphasis in the government's dossier, he said: 'Given the misinterpretation that was placed on the 45-minute intelligence, with the benefit of hindsight you can say that is a valid criticism.

Britain sent about 1,400 more troops to Iraq, the 2nd Battalion Light Infantry and the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets, to supplement its force of 10,000. Another 1,200 may be sent too. A man died during a clash between two factions of Iraqi asylum-seekers and two dozen men using baseball bats, sticks, bricks and knives in the St Ann's district of Nottingham. Mr Paul Evans, the commissioner of Boston city police department, was appointed by Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, as head of the Police Standards Unit, which monitors local forces. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, told the press he was going to say, at a TUC dinner, 'The idea of a left-wing Labour government as the alternative to a moderate and progressive one is the abiding delusion of 100 years of our party.

Mr Alastair Campbell confirmed that he was to resign as the Prime Minister's director of com-munications and strategy. He is to be succeeded, at least in the first half of the title, by Mr David Hill, but there is to be a general musical-chairs in the department, about which Mr Peter Mandelson is said to have been consulted. The Hutton inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons, heard evidence from Mrs Janice Kelly his widow, who said, 'He said several times over coffee, over lunch, over afternoon tea that he felt totally let down and betrayed' – by the Ministry of Defence.

The Hutton inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons, heard evidence from Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, Mr Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, and Mr John Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee, who said that on 4 September the committee heard that an intelligence source indicated that in Iraq 'from forward deployed storage sites, chemical and biological munitions could be with military units and ready for firing within 45 minutes'. On one day alone the inquiry released 9,000 pages of evidence on the Internet. A virus called Sobig.F alarmed email users but failed to cause the destruction feared. The West Coast line from Euston to Scotland was closed all week near Milton Keynes for engineering works.

Documents presented to Lord Hutton's inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons, showed that Mr Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, overruled a recommendation from Sir Kevin Tebbit, the permanent undersecretary at the ministry, that Dr Kelly should not be required to appear before the Commons foreign affairs committee as well as its security and intelligence committee; 'Presentationally, it would be difficult,' wrote Mr Hoon's private secretary, 'to defend a position in which the government had objected to Dr Kelly appearing before a committee of the House which takes evidence in public.

Lord Hutton began his inquiry into the events leading to the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Mr Andrew Gilligan, who had used Dr Kelly as his source for a report on the BBC about the 'sexing up' of the government's September dossier on Iraq, made available notes made after meeting him; part said, 'most people in intel werent happy with it because it didn't reflect the considere view they were putting forward Campbell real info but unr. incl against ur wishes'. Miss Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC's Newsnight, said her shorthand notes of Dr Kelly's remarks about the claim that weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes read: 'a mistake to put in, Alastair Campbell seeing something in there, single source, but not corroborated, sounded good'.

Lord Hutton began his inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence expert on Iraqi weapons, by disclosing part of a letter by the scientist to his superior, in which he said that, judging from the report by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan about the government's September dossier on Iraq, 'I can only conclude one of three things: Gilligan has considerably embellished my meeting with him; he has met with other individuals who were intimately associated with the dossier; or he assembled comments from both multiple direct and indirect sources for his articles.' Lord Hutton said he meant to call both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence to give evidence; the inquiry adjourned until after Dr Kelly's funeral.