And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

I’ve got a feeling
I’m going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief*

Well, against my expectations, the story of the Attorney General’s legal advice refuses fizzle out and slip down the news agenda. It’s possible it might run out of steam over the long bank holiday weekend and the singularly inept Tories are doing their part to keep it off the front pages as well, but for now, just about everybody (except the Mudoch press, natch) is covering it:

The Independent: Publish or be damned
The Independent: Blair faces backbench backlash as pressure mounts to publish war advice
The Independent: The latest row: how it started, what it shows, and where it is going next
The Telegraph: Blair may be told to hand over all Goldsmith’s advice on Iraq
BBC News: Secret Iraq legal advice probed
The Guardian: Straw rejects call to publish all Iraq legal advice
The Guardian: Robin Cook: Not even in his worst nightmares
The Guardian: Leading lawyers back FO adviser who quit over ruling

Despite Jack Straw’s desperate flapping in the House of Commons yesterday (a strategy that seemed to consist of dragging out the minutia and, when that didn’t wash, having a pop at Claire Short - an act of unifying bravado much in keeping with pushing the smelly, weird kid around the playground), the knives are well and truly out again. Does the pack scent blood?

As I’ve said before, the Attorney General’s advice must be dynamite because if it wasn’t it’d already be out in the public domain (probably leaked to a sympathetic newspaper) in order to save reputations and careers. If the Attorney General did rule the the war to be open to legal challenge, not only should some people be out of their jobs, they should be in the dock at the Hague as well.

For now, it’s all in the hands of Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, who is examining the Government’s decision to withhold the legal advice. He has the power to order the release of the advice. So far, Thomas is saying little, least of all when he’ll reach his decision. Will it be before the General Election?

And to those who say this is a dry argument over legal nuances and that we should “draw a line under thing and move on”, I say: You’re wrong.

* Beyond Belief, Elvis Costello.