Fox hunting

Those of you interested in the furore over Defence Minister Dr Liam Fox's friendship with Adam Werritty should take a look at The guide to the rules relating to the conduct of Members(pdf, 57 pages, 529 kb).

Mr Werritty had accompanied Dr Fox on almost a third of his ministerial trips overseas and had business cards describing himself as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Defence. When Dr Fox was the shadow health minister Werritty described himself as a health policy advisor. Dr Fox has aplogised for his "lack of judgement" but there is an inquiry into the matter. Watch this space.

Mull of Kintyre Chinook helicopter crash - case re-opened?

A recently discovered internal Ministry of Defence memo has shown that there were very serious concerns about the safety of the Chinook Mark II helicopter fleet, several months before the fatal crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. The special forces crew and 25 senior members of Northern Ireland's intelligence community were killed.
A Royal Air Force investigation finally found the two pilots guilty of gross negligence. As well as the official reports, including Select Committee on Chinook ZD576, you can also find the House of Lords' discussions about it online.

Along with Sir Stephen Young's conclusions after the Fatal Accident Inquiry, we also have CD-ROMs containing the transcripts. These were supplied by Steuart Campbell, who wrote a book about the incident.

(Image courtesy of RAF)