PRESUMABLY IT CAN only be a matter of time before cyberspace claims that Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence weapons expert who recently committed suicide, was in fact assassinated by the CIA, or M16 or Mossad, or some other secret service. There are doubtless any number of people on the Web who are already questioning the Coroner's verdict.

Yet before we all start saying that we can remember exactly where we were when we heard of Dr Kelly's death, or that it seemed to be the moment that defined our era, let's recall that conspiracy theories nearly all turn out to be utter bilge. There are millions of