We all remember the date—it was 1066 and the Battle of Hastings when an arrow pierced the eye of Harold Godwinson, and William the Conqueror claimed the throne of England. Having seized his kingdom, this Norman adventurer had to find out what he was reigning over, because unless he knew that, he could not indulge the habit of every ruler of that time or this—taxing the populace. The result was the Domesday Book, an extensive inquiry into the wealth of his new realm. The first public inquiry! And it has flourished ever since.
Whether its purpose was to glean genuine information on a subject of national importance, such as the reform of the assizes system under Lord Beeching in the 1970s, or to kick a controversial subject into the long grass, as in the Iraq Inquiry, is open to debate. But this useful mechanism for bequeathing a ‘hot potato’ to a future administration has a long history. It became
