The Bush administration’s aversion to openness reached the proportions of parody last weekend when Dick Cheney, US vice-president, accidentally shot a man while hunting quail in Texas. The White House revealed nothing about the accident when it occurred, and it is entirely possible that this near-manslaughter would have gone unreported had the host of the shooting party not told a local reporter about the incident a day later.

Must one really argue the case that when the US vice-president shoots someone – intentionally or unintentionally, fatally or otherwise – the public has a right to hear about it? It is true that there is historical precedent for Mr Cheney’s attempted cover-up. When the vice-president Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, Burr’s second used an umbrella to obscure the wounded man from potential witnesses. Burr went home and mentioned nothing to his luncheon guest about the incident. After Hamilton died, a public cry went up and Burr fled to an undisclosed location in Georgia.