This entry was posted on
Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at
11:14 pm and is filed
under Tony ‘King Blair.

Bloggerheads – Blair, Capita and ‘easy money’ above the table (March 22, 2006): I’m going to ask you to think about that for a moment… these people came offering donations, but were instead asked for loans. Were it not for this scandal, how many of them do you think would be prepared to simply write off the loan after a suitable period? You get ten points if you answered correctly; All. Of. Them.

New Statesman – Cash for peerages: the new evidence (September 22, 2006): According to my Labour Party source, who is at the highest level of the party structure and perfectly placed to know, at least some of these loans were never intended to be paid back. According to this individual, they were never loans at all but purely and simply secret donations. And has my source told the police? You bet.

Blair Watch – Labour’s bright idea to solve its funding crisis… us!: Maybe, instead of hitting us up for more cash, the Labour Party should ask itself why its membership has halved but its fundraising has trebled since Tony Blair became Prime Minister.

(Psst! For the answer to that question… click here.)

The New Statesman article relates to a Dispatches documentary that will be shown on Channel 4 on Monday 25 September at 8pm. I urge you to watch it.

Oh, and keep an eye out for the first edition of the Labour Party’s campaign return… coming soon to a web browser near you.

UPDATE (24 Sep) – Two related links for you:
Independent – Exclusive: Lies, loans & lordships (The cash-for-honours scandal: Top Labour official tells ‘IoS’ ‘Party deliberately got round the law’ )
Independent – Dodgy donations: How Labour’s cash crisis led to the biggest sleaze scandal in the party’s history