The grandest of grand nabobs at a wintry QEII centre

A very good morning to you from a wintry QEII centre. Anticipating a little less media presence than at yesterday’s session but could be interesting nonetheless – especially this afternoon.

First up is Nemat Shafik, permanent secretary at DfID 2008-09. DfID took yet another whacking yesterday, with Alastair Campbell effectively describing its former secretary of state Clare Short as having been untrustworthy and disloyal.

The afternoon brings Lord Turnbull, in his time among the grandest of grand nabobs as cabinet secretary 2002-2005. Baroness Prashar spent a lot of yesterday’s session asking Campbell about the cabinet sec’s role in the months leading up to war.

Interesting by the way to read Campbell’s own take on how yesterday went (and how, inevitably, we in the media all got it totally wrong) thanks Iraqi exiles, cabinet office and (almost) God. Except of course that he famously doesn’t do God.

He also attacks what he calls the “whooshery” of the news media, claiming that the two main lines journalists went with yesterday were either already well known (Blair’s letters to Bush, which he says featured in his own autobiographgy) or frankly obvious (Gordon Brown’s role).

Mind you we hacks don’t help our own cause much when we still can’t distinguish between the dossiers and I write that as a huge Hoggart fan.

Tweets from 10h00, see you then…