Andrew Mackinlay

[Mohne]

This guy should be totally ashamed of himself after "grilling" Dr Kelly and calling him "chaff"

Dr Kelly had a greater intellect in his big toe than the total IQ of Mackinlay. It was a disgraceful public humiliation which I consider to be in part responsible for Dr Kelly's death......shameful and totally unnecessary, only playing to the cameras.

According to reports, he is going because of mental and physical exhaustion..................it is amazing to me how he had the b@lls to carry on after the Kelly incident, for which he will always be remembered.

[Quizmonster]

The word, chaff, has various meanings. One is rubbish or worthless material and another is strips of metal foil dropped by aircraft to interfere with radar detection.
Many believe Mackinlay meant the former...ie Kelly was trash...but he almost certainly meant the latter...ie that he was a sort of smokescreen, as it were. In other words, it was not at all offensive.
The incident reminded me of one that happened in the USA, when an official was hounded for using the word *********, which just means mean or stingy and has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone's colour.

[Quizmonster]

I guessed the asterisking above might happen. It just shows that the robot censor here on AnswerBank is as 'ignorant' as some among the American public! The word starts with ni and goes on to double g followed by ardly.

[Mohne]

Quizmonster....maybe.....but put it into context of the atmosphere in which the inquiry was held and the aggressive confrontational way in which Mackinlay conducted himself.......something I will NEVER forget.

[Quizmonster]

Don't imagine I have any axe to grind for Mackinlay; in fact, I have always considered his public appearances rather oafish. However, his task was specifically to 'grill' Dr Kelly, so he can hardly be faulted for that. And 'chaff' I have already explained.
We can, therefore, agree the man is ill-mannered, but that hardly justifies your attitude to him in my view.

But what the hey! I'll leave it at that.

[Mohne]

Quizmonster.....call it "empathy"

[R1Geezer]

was the word n1gardly by any chance QM?

[rov1200]

Dr Kelly died during a police operation called 'Mason'. Don't take much working out who these killers were as it was linked to getting Blair off the hook.