I wonder if this will calm the doubts relayed in early August by Richard Ingrams concerning Martin Gilbert's Jewishness as a historian? Taking as his backdrop the 1930s and what was withheld from public view during that decade, Gilbert explains the spirit in which he views the Iraq war inquiry:
It is my personal knowledge – in my 50th year of continuous historical research not only into Churchill but into many facets of British history in the 20th century – of how much of the past has so often been deliberately and dangerously hidden from a public that needs to know, that made me agree to take part in the Iraq inquiry, knowing that the independence and professionalism of the inquiry's members, and their individual and collective determination to see the truth prevail, would give the British public a chance to know what really happened during a traumatic and controversial decade.
What a pity that the Britons who lived through the years 1933-1939 had no such opportunity, but had to wait more than 30 years. I see the Iraq inquiry as an important milestone in government willingness to confront contentious issues without fear or favour.
