Scott-Baker and the limit of memory
Friday, February 29th, 2008Recently started to peruse the transcripts of the Scott-Baker inquest into the Diana/Dodi/Trevor crash, not because I was a big fan or because I believe the conspiracy theory, but to find out what happened to the mysterious Fiat Uno (no definite news yet). Several things struck me, firstly the extreme courtesy and consideration shown to witnesses by the eponymous Lord, secondly the extreme lengths to which the inquest is going in order to find out what happened. Unfortunately there are already signs that they won’t establish anything definitive except for disproving the barmy Prince Philip-told-MI6-to-do-it theory, although equally they don’t seem too keen to actually ask him.
It does give interesting insights into MI6, as you thought but hoped otherwise, it turns out to be much like any other civil service department, with arcane filing systems and much talk of budgets. And it doesn’t look like there is much chance of them assassinating any of the various dictators out there who really deserve it.
The point here is that memories are not very clear, not surprisingly in some cases, more surprisingly in others, such as the ex-defence minister who couldn’t remember which side was which in Angola. So, as in Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, there are several stories about the same event, none of which can exist unproblematically alongside the others. I wonder if things will be different ten years from now, or will all those blogs and twitters drift away like our memories do? And if they don’t, what use will it be recreating the past anyway?