THERE is, for the time being at least, no smoking gun. The Attorney-General's advice over the legality of war in Iraq is not as "unequivocal" as Tony Blair has suggested, but equally Lord Goldsmith concluded that Mr Blair had "a reasonable case".

There is very little new in the document, despite it dominating news headlines.

This, however, will not be the end of the matter - probably unfortunately for the majority of the electorate who, although they realise Iraq is an extremely serious issue, are heartily sick of the convoluted but inconclusive squabbling and name-calling.

The document is good, lawyerly advice, so you can take what you want from it (and, ironically, those that do that will be committing the same crime as they accuse Mr Blair of committing).

Rory Bremner, as we report, says that as Mr Blair failed to present the document to his Cabinet colleagues, he was abusing his position of power and undermining the British Constitution so fatally that he should be ejected by the voters of Sedgefield.

That is a view.

But, a devil's advocate might also suggest that Lord Goldsmith's long arguments with his American counterparts over their reading of legality show that the British Government was not quite the supine lapdog its critics would have us believe.

That, too, is a view. Your own view will depend upon whether you are predisposed to believe or distrust Mr Blair - and that, in turn, will be coloured by whether he has angered you by banning fox-hunting or pleased you by adding a new classroom to your child's school.

The document overall does Labour just a little good. It does not provide any concrete evidence to support the contention that Mr Blair lied.

However, Iraq has spent another day hogging the election headlines - a day Labour would rather have spent discussing public services.

Through all this mist and murk of claim and counterclaim, one fact emerges crystal clear. In Britain, we are still governed in a climate of secrecy. We may have a Freedom of Information Act, but yesterday's information was only released begrudgingly after nearly all of it had been already leaked.

If Mr Blair had released the Attorney-General's advice a year ago, much of the recent unnecessary and dispiriting hoo-hah would have been avoided.