access to the Defence Secretary. The 22 meetings in the Ministry of Defence, and almost as many again overseas, will surely have helped, even if they were purely private and social, as Mr Fox maintained yesterday. As the saga descends ever further into the minutiae of when, where and how meetings were arranged or minuted, the central, still unanswered question, is why Mr Fox failed to recognise that he needed to keep his professional distance from a friend with links to the defence industry once he became the Secretary of State. Such a judgement does not need a ministerial code of conduct, it is plain common sense. Equally, that Mr Fox attended meetings scheduled by a personal friend and unattended by departmental staff indicates a cavalier and unprofessional attitude that can only be a matter of concern. Mr Fox has admitted that he should not have met a commercial supplier without an official present. But his acknowledgement is too little, too late. Despite personal tensions that go back to the 2005 Tory leadership contest, the Prime Minister was still trying to save his Defence Secretary yesterday, defending his record at the MoD and maintaining that he had given "a good account of himself" on the subject of Mr Werritty. It is true that Mr Fox has started well at the MoD, not least in tackling the 38bn budgetary black hole. But that cannot outweigh the gravity of his mistakes. Belated apologies are not enough. Neither are Mr Fox's assurances that