Hoon Are You?

‘CONTINUING our ‘And what do you do for a living?’ investigation into the personnel of Government, we turn to the Independent and say, ‘Tell us about yourself, Richard Taylor’.

Close the door on your way out

Richard Taylor is the fresh-faced special advisor to Mr Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary.

This makes Mr Taylor a very important man, and to prove his worth he added his name to the list of those who have been asked to speak at the super exclusive Hutton Inquiry Club And Grill.

Take it away, Richard.

‘We [at a meeting including the Defence Secretary] explicitly talked through if a direct name was put,’ says Taylor, words reproduced by the Times. ‘It was agreed that it would not be tenable to say ‘no’ because it would be to lie.’

The long and short of this is that Taylor has contradicted his boss, the man he is paid to advise.

For the benefit of many of you who might have nodded off or have been getting shot at in Iraq for the past few weeks, the Times repeats Hoon’s version of events.

‘I did not see the question and answer, and played no part in its preparation, but I was aware of the advice that I had received that if the right name was given to an MoD press officer they should confirm it,’ said Hoon days ago.

This is exciting stuff for the last day of the Inquiry’s first stage, and we wonder what will happen when the Club reconvenes for stage 2 on September 15.

But since that’s more than 45 minutes away, we might all be dead by then or in the throes of Anthrax poisoning…’

Posted: 5th, September 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink