Pressure Sores

The newspapers have recently informed us that "irresistible pressures” ended an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into alleged high-level bribery and corruption. In the strange WMD intelligence dossier case, as well as in several other notable affaires, the same sort of pressures seem to have played their part, blocking inquiries or driving them towards a convenient, pre-ordained outcome.

These histories bring to mind the “pressures” applied on the protagonists in another failed governmental investigation: the 2004 Gaul RFI. I recall now that, following the publication of the Gaul RFI final report, a participant in the formal investigation commented that the Wreck Commissioner (justice David Steel) seemed to have his own agenda when probing the reasons for the tragedy; the implication being that outside “pressures” might have weighed upon His Honour more than the available evidence and testimonies.

Having tried for almost two years now to have the conclusions of the 2004 RFI re-examined, we have realised that the bodies responsible for dealing with the concerns that had been raised also seemed to be under some kind of nocuous “pressures” from which they couldn't escape.

Pressures, as we know from the laws of physics, can be harmful to a body when they outbalance the body’s ability to stand firm. Therefore, so as to prevent injury to our public bodies we must either restrain these terrible forces, or, somehow, invigorate the former’s ability to resist and respond.