From Lord Denning on the Profumo scandal to Lord Franks on the Falklands war, from Sir Richard Scott on the sale of arms to Iraq to Sir Anthony Hammond on the Hinduja brothers and the Dome, judicial inquiries have never destroyed governments. The evidence they collect is immensely useful. Eight years before he tore into a Labour government for overthrowing the genocidal Iraqi tyrant, Robin Cook used the facts revealed by the Scott inquiry to tear into the Conservative government for arming the genocidal Iraqi tyrant. But the judges’ punches are always pulled. In the case of the Scott report, no minister had to resign because Sir Richard presented a six-volume report that offered no damning conclusion – indeed, it had no conclusions whatsoever.