Inquests are of great value to society.

The power of the legal Inquest into the cause of death, of people by accident or design must not be underestimated or undermined in any society that regards itself as democratic. For example the 7/7 Inquest is proving an invaluable exercise in helping to discover not only the cause but also what went wrong in the care of the victims in the vital moments after the blasts. It is regretable that the Labour government was unable to over come the obstacles to properly conducting this Inquest and that it has fallen again to the arguablely more Democratic Coalition to oversee the 7/7 Inquests. As with the investigation into the death of baby P such legal reports and post mortems are important to find out what has gone wrong and how such mistakes can be prevented in the future. Likewise it would seem with the mysterous death of David Kelly that a properly conducted Inquest might uncover what could have happened in the last hours of his life.
The published coroners report shows new evidence that he had bruises under his knee ,right shine, two on his chest and three abrasions on his head. This in itself shows that suicide may not have been the correct verdict at the non-inquest of the Hutton Inquiry. It puts a big question mark over the integrity of the politicians who arranged that Inquiry and pours doubt over their motives for ignoring the need for a proper inquest and verdict. Surely now that this has been revealed by the Justice Minister Kenneth Clark, the correct thing is to move towards an Inquest in the right legal framework?
What is very disturbing is the way many Labour supporters have sought to defend the indefensible by glossing over the fact that a proper Inquest was not conducted whatever the case, whether it was suicide or murder. Their moral failure in this is perhaps because in some measure they might be responsible for the pressures that brought about Kelly's demise. Something, many of the great and the good of the Labour party seem to be in complete denial, failing to see how a breach of trust has occurred to damage perhaps irreparbley their image.

Many years ago I was a student welfare councillor at a University that had the highest suicide rate in the country. I therefore spent many hours with suicidal students helping them to sort out problems that had contributed to their state of mind. In fact I was nominated for Scotswomen of the year for helping bring down the suicide rate from 12 a year to zero. In my time spent doing that I encountered many suicidal people and one young student comes to mind who had slashed her wrists. Whist at the local Accident and Emergency with her what I saw, was that she had made one deep slash across each wrist. What is remarkable in observing these wounds is that there is very little blood because the blood vessels contract to defend the patient from death. Such a wound does not drip with blood and is not dangerous enough to in itself to cause death as many experts have also contended. The suicidal rarely die from this alone.

I, in fact, briefly only met David Kelly once at a Baha'i event at which he was a speaker. Of his state of mind I would say he seemed to be a defiantly stubborn person with a strong belief in himself something that the suicidal characteristically lack. He had none of the indicators of a clinically suicidal person. So there are many questions that must be asked about his final hours. An Inquest properly conducted could help to answer the mysteries and alay the fears or confirm them that his attackers might still be at large. Until that Inquest is conducted there will always be doubt.

Faith and Reason - the political challenge

Any visitor to the Vatican like myself not as a Catholic but as a tourist could not help but marvel at the glories that were Rome and the enormous advancement of Christianity through the organ of that powerful state. In its essence the existance of the See of Rome brought Christianity as a force to the entire planet preaching the love of Christ albeit in the schism and disunity of various sects. How wonderful then and modernising that Pope Benedict has ignored the schism in favour of promoting the central core of all Religious Faiths which is that of the Unity of God and the importance of Religious belief in society.
In this spirit I wanted to share my amusing encounter with the concept of Religious Unity when as an ex-Presbyterian I ended up saying a prayer for the Pope something that might be considered as quite a contradiction by those schooled with the differences in Faith, (which is perhaps in itelf a contradiction).
Whilst in Rome in 2005 I found myself searching for the entrance of the Vatican Museum and when unable to find it found myself accidently walking around the entire vatican itself in a kind of circumambulation. As I realised my mistake I thought to take up prayer for the Pope since I had my own Religious Faith and I thought perhaps my prayer that was about the Intergral Unity of All religions might permeate those walls. I said for the Pope a Baha'i prayer called the 'Remover of Difficulties' to help him recognise that All Religions are One. How arrogant that perhaps a hapless tourist of little recognition could have this wish. I walked around the high Edifice saying ' Is there any remover of difficulties save God say praised be God he is God, All are his servants and all abide by his biding.' Such was the vastness of the Vatican I was to say some hundred or so prayers for the Pope to recognise the Unity of his Faith and all other true religions.

How wonderful therefore that God answered the prayer of the breathless tourist some five years later with Pope Benedict arriving in Britain to call his brethern to a larger statement of their Faith that would encompose all groups in Christianity and exort other religions in extolling the importance in the belief in God for society.

Guarding against 'Agressive Secularism'
How very important it is that society accept Religion as a guidance in life as a force for Good. When politicians shut out Religions from Society they in fact prevent themselves from being a force of Good and become open to other more disunited forces of greed, tyranny and vested interests. Presenting one class or ideology, whether lower of upper class against one another in conflict can not in itself resolve the extreme problems of society.' A politician who only represents one class (lower or higher) of his constituents can not in fact be a proper politician because he or she is not representing all the people he was elected to represent.' Nor, at this jucture, with corruption at its highest, can any person of Relgion stand idly by and watch the subordination of Relgion in public life without taking up a voice of intervention and warning, and in this the Pope is quite correct.

Therefore let the Politician extol the virtues of Religious work with the poor the sick and needy and recognise the call to service, in which the role of the PUBLIC SERVANT is a more real and considered one. Im sure that the Pope might agree albeit that he has greater abilities to command it than a single solitary tourist or citizen of the UK.

Religion, of which ever Faith, beit Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Baha'i and the many others not mentioned here, should be given room in society to join in to play its part. Religion must not be marginalised because when this happens, society fails to have the guidance that in its essence prevents corruption, greed, violence and emnity. Without Religion, society becomes but only an empty shell. We are all more than the sum of our parts, how else therefore could a group of miners summon the Faith to survive over 40 days and with the help of disciplined consideration rise to the surface in Chile. A call to prayer if there ever was one!!!

However Religion is only as good as the people in it, and this is where the problem lies. To throw out the barrel of apples because of one rotten one does not make sense. You throw away the one bad apple to save the rest!!



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Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah MacLachlan