Range of possibilities
- 19 Jan 07, 06:34 PM
Tony Blair has given Ruth Turner his full backing. He could do no other, really - to do otherwise would have been to admit that there was some wrongdoing.
Of course we have to say that although it is serious that she's been arrested, she has not been charged. Remember that the chief fundraiser for Tony Blair, Lord Levy, was arrested some months ago, and he has never been charged. Charges are possible but they may never happen.
One possibility is that the police are using arrest as a way of obtaining documentary evidence that they've not been able to secure so far. Another is that they are trying to unnerve Ms Turner. A further possibility - we simply don't know - is that they are arresting her and they intend at some later stage to charge her.
But - in other words - there is a great range of possibilities for her and Tony Blair - from very very serious indeed, to much, much, much less serious.
Just before Christmas, my feeling was that there were more interviews to be done - including Ruth Turner, amongst others - and that a file would then be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS would then have to decide whether there was enough evidence to press ahead with charges, and perhaps a court case.
What wasn't expected was for it to take this long, for there to be another arrest, and for the police to then say that they needed yet more time. Remember that originally, it was said that this would all be sorted by last autumn.
In fact, bizarrely, in the film, Big B鈥檚 character is flirting with that of his future daughter-in-law鈥檚.
