His magnum opus, the four-volume Birds of America, is now so rare and sought-after that the last copy to come up for sale - at Sotheby's, New York, in 2000 - fetched an astonishing $8.8m - and it was here, in Edinburgh, that his great work first took wing. Audubon was born in the West Indies in 1785, the illegitimate son of a French plantation owner and a French chambermaid. As long as the parties are jawing, there has to be some ground for cautious optimism.. Yet behind the bluster there are signs that North Korea sees the possession of nuclear weapons more as a means of gaining international help and acceptance than the other way round, while Washington would prefer a peaceable deal than another conflict. The fact that the talks are taking place in China, North Korea's traditional ally, and include other interested parties, gives some reassurance to both sides. The US wants immediate nuclear disarmament from North Korea, Pyongyang wants a full and binding non-aggression pact from Washington. Washington has lost all trust in the North Korean word after the revelation that it had been secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme over the last three or four years. North Korea has lost all trust in Washington after President Bush overturned Clinton's policy of active engagement two years ago.With such mutual dislike among the parties, progress is likely to be slow at best.
The good news was that the talks got under way at all, and that the Americans and North Korea sat and conversed side by side. The more gloomy news is that the two sides still remain as far apart as ever. While the US is learning in Iraq some of the penalties of following a unilateral approach to so-called "rogue regimes", over North Korea it is following a quite different course of multilateral negotiations over what has become a much more serious threat of real weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday saw the start of six-nation talks in Beijing including Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. Mr Campbell stated the truth more baldly perhaps than he intended when he confided to his diary: "It was grim, grim for me and grim for TB, and there was this huge stuff about trust." Four months after the war with Iraq, six weeks after Dr Kelly's death, there is still "this huge stuff about trust", and it will be a political albatross around Mr Blair's neck long, long after the Hutton inquiry is over..
Mr Blair will not fail this test.The very fact that he was shocked into calling this inquiry, however, and the fact that he immediately agreed to give evidence in person, signify a greater failure. So while today's encounter between the law and the country's chief executive will inevitably be the climax of this first part of Lord Hutton's inquiry, those anticipating high drama in the style of Perry Mason will be disappointed. For him, a barrister by training, the courtroom is a familiar habitat. He will not be floored by the low-key precision of leading counsel, nor by the sharp interjections that have become Lord Hutton's trademark. Does the Downing Street chief of staff or communications director have the power to authorise such actions? The Prime Minister was "aware" of Dr Kelly's name. How much responsibility does "awareness" imply? These questions probe not just the style, but the essence of Mr Blair's government, and they need to be answered.Mr Blair is a polished performer - one of the best in the political business, his presentational talents honed by hours of Prime Minister's Questions.
One, crucially, naming David Kelly in confidence to the BBC; the other allowing Dr Kelly's appearance before two parliamentary committees, despite his chief civil servant's contrary advice It is vital to know on whose authority he was acting. If this is true, perhaps we should be asking what exactly the Defence Secretary was paid to do.A political albatrossMr Hoon did, however, admit to responsibility for two letters. He took part in almost none of the close conclaves at Downing Street on the dispute with the BBC. He was not apprised of statements or advice issued in his ministry's name, nor did he know of Dr Kelly's reputation as a weapons expert or that he was even a member of his department - even after lunching with him in the staff canteen. If Mr Hoon's answers are to be taken at face value, he had almost nothing to do with the Iraq weapons dossier.
