Why do we need and Inquiry?

The debate about the hospital was a long one. 3 Hours of speechs. It was clear that though different people from different sides of the house were calling for an Inquiry, and others were expressing reservations, that there were many different ideas about what an Inquiry could or should do, and why different individuals wanted it.

David Kidney wants an Inquiry so that all the questions can be answered and seen to be answered. He also want it as a means of helping the bereaved move on.

The bereaved want answers, some may want "justice" or "recognition". and some of them want more people to be sacked.

The Oppostion Front bench are looking for the means of criticising the structures governing the Health service, which they can use as a way of attacking the health service in its current form. They are not happy to go along with the recommendations of any of the three reports that have so far been issued because they do not choose to see them as "fully independant"

Bill Cash has busied himself going through a "paper trail" of different people involved in different parts of the organisations that monitor the health service, and would possibly like to use the inquiry as a means of discrediting a whole range of individuals.

Lots of MPs who have concerns about the health service in their own area want an Inquiry so that lessons can be learned for the health service as a whole.

Even I have my own idea about an Inquiry. I would like to see an examination of the role of the press in the handling of the story.

We could also guess that the papers want an Inquiry because it sells papers, and the Lawyers want an Inquiry because it is good business.

It will be interesting to see if an Inquiry can satisfy all of these different requirements!

One thing that David has suggested in the course of his speech is that we should press on with clarifying how we would conduct an Inquiry and what the questions should be. Carrying out this exercise should go a long way towards seeing what it is that we all want to know. 

The Government front bench has committed itself to helping to look into any other questions that people may raise. This will mean that we should assume we can get answers, regardless of whether there is an Inquiry or not.