John Reid's veiled threats

"If you want a public enquiry, you will put the security of our nation at risk". It may not be those exact words but that is basically what John Reid told us all yesterday, as he defended the government's position not hold a full independent public enquiry in to the 7/7 London bombings. Which, to be honest, is the usual spin line from this government whenever any of their decisions are questioned.

Now, I have a vested interest in this subject, as I was on duty that morning and ending up being part of an incident response team that attended the Aldgate site. So as you can imagine, I want answers.

What I have great deal of difficulty in believing is that any recommendations, or answers, will come out of any closed doors review by a group of MPs. But, it isn't as though we should be even be looking at blaming anyone. The fact of the matter is that two of the London Bombers were known to have fraternised with MI5 targets, but were never followed up. There could be a simple explanation for we know, but nevertheless they were never followed up, and I know the consequences of that better than any MP.

So, we therefore need to have a public enquiry to find out what went wrong, as we need to learn from that. We need to know what signs were missed, in order for MI5 to know what to look for next. The enquiry must be a learning exercise, and not a blaming one. However, until the government do hold one, there won't be any definitive answers, only accusations of agencies covering up their errors.