Breaking: Hutton admits to rendition

Just heard on the closing headlines of The World at One that John Hutton has just admitted to the House of Commons that there has been at least one example of UK forces handing over a suspect to the US in the sort of rendition circumstances that had previously been denied. He trotted out the usual government formula of "we knew nothing" and "previous statements were in good faith".

So incompetence it is then.

What annoys me most about this sort of thing is that the government will loudly deny for years that it has not been happening and then when there is finally evidence to the contrary, they sheepishly slip out the truth hedged with all sorts of caveats. It is exactly this that makes the public not believe politicians in the first place. They should be much surely of their ground before coming out with the denials in the first place.