Roll up, Roll up for the Charismatic Hoon

Mr Hoon, you'll recall, was the co-author of the pathetic little plot against Gordon Brown a couple of weeks ago. Those of you with a penchant for very dull men might even recall that he was a spectacularly dull Minister of Defence for a few years.

Today he's giving evidence to the Chilcot enquiry into the war. As you'd expect, he's fighting the spirit of enquiry with the shield of yawn-inducing boredom, but there are a few gems.

He was asked, as Minister of Defence, whether he knew that Britain was offering troops for the Iraq war.

Lyne says that by May 2002 the Americans had reached the view that the British were offering a large land contribution. Sir Christopher Meyer referred to this in his evidence. Did Hoon know about this?

Hoon says that he was not aware of this.

This man was in charge of Britain's armed forces.

Update: understatement of the century:

Chilcot asks if there was a concern about the British not being able to control what the Americans were doing.

Hoon accepts this was an issue.