When, a few months ago, a prominent eco-activist was murdered in Northern Thailand, the authorities immediately, and preposterously, claimed that he had been killed by "rival eco activists". This became something of a running joke locally, with people wondering whether in fact JFK might have been murdered by "rival presidents", John Lennon by "rival musicians" and Gandhi by "rival pacifists".

The UK government has not, as yet, dared to claim that Dr. Kelly's death was the result of a feud with "rival WMD experts", but I'm waiting for something equally implausible. Given the out-and-out distortion, dishonesty, and lies-upon-lies that have characterised our government's whole approach to the war on Iraq, it seems only rational to be deeply suspicious about this latest, tragic development.

We know from the official report into the death of the Northern Irish lawyer Patrick Finucane (a report which took more than 10 long years to come out) that the UK government has sanctioned politically-motivated murders in the past. That was the one case where, despite systematic obstruction at an official level, the truth came out. It seems reasonable to suppose that this might just have been the tip of the iceberg.

The WMD crisis threatens to undermine not just the Prime Minister, but large sections of his whole party, large sections of the supposedly 'impartial' civil service, and of course Britain's shadowy and unaccountable intelligence services. Somewhere near the heart of it was a quiet man named Dr. Kelly. And now he'll never have a chance to tell his part of the tale.