Last night I attended the launch of Gareth Peirce's book "Dispatches from the Dark Side" at the London Review Bookshop.

She gave a general talk about the question of the British Government's complicity in torture, speaking slowly, quietly, clearly and logically but extremely eloquently.

She welcomed the statements from the coalition government that an inquiry would be held into British complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition under the previous government, but questioned whether such an inquiry would be able to access the facts that it would need to be effective. She questioned whether the customary secrecy that surrounds such matters could be lifted sufficiently for the truth to be told, and whether the will really exists to make the cultural change needed. A public inquiry with its most important evidence heard in secret (which seems to be what is on offer) would not be enough.