Snowmail: big story, bit niffy, shrouded in fog
Updated on 27 November 2007
Very busy day, folks, so this has to be short.
A big story, a bit niffy, shrouded in fog
Once in a while you're confronted with a story and you just don't know how big it is.
OK, it's not Watergate, but it is foggy, a bit niffy, and still very uncertain how far it extends. Are we dealing tonight with one eccentric fellow in north east England who simply had a passion for giving the Labour party money?
Or was there something else in play? Hard to imagine that this shadowy figure sought the celebration of knighthood or peerage, and the government has been quick to rebut any suggestion that his donations could have influenced an important planning decision.
Our man Nick Martin has been criss-crossing the north east of England, interviewing anybody who's ever had a whiff of a contact with him.
By the way, if anybody out there has anything they could add to this bizarre tale, please email us fast: news@channel.com.
I spent an hour and a half sitting at Gordon Brown's feet in Number 10 today. Once again, he's launched an inquiry, but it's very hard to say whether it will ever identify what happened.
But he did promise to name names - but he did it in a way which might enable him NOT to name names.
The bottom line is, David Abrahams, for whatever reason, gave the Labour party £600,000 in just three years. He tried to give Brown himself some for his leadership campaign (what was that?), to Harriet Harman, but indirectly...
We're digging on that one. How much did she know, and when did she know it?
And to Hilary Benn, who refused to accept the money through an intermediary but did accept it through Mr Abrahams himself.
I put it to Gordon Brown myself: how was it that this guy managed to get prime position at Tony Blair's leaving moment, got to meet Gordon Brown, got to attend all sorts of big-wig Labour events in the north east, got deselected as a candidate for Westminster, and so much else, and yet when all this was going on, nobody except one man knew that he was giving more than £500,000 to the Labour party?
The one man has now resigned, though to hear Gordon Brown this morning he has BEEN resigned.
It beggars belief that nobody else knew anything about it. We're on the case.
Read the lunchtime report
Annapolis - more than a talking shop?
So everyone's got together in the rather nice waterside naval town of Annapolis, in Maryland - Israelis, Fatah Palestinians, Egyptians, Syrians.
Even David Miliband is there. We were promised neither a talking shop nor photo opportunities. But as Sarah Smith will be reporting tonight, it's looking as if we're going to end up with both and not a lot else.
Nick Paton Walsh is on the ground in Israel and travelling into the occupied territories to visit the illegal settlements.
Q&A: Annapolis's chances of success
Small but perfectly formed
Finally, you know the lovely little album icons that come up on your iPod when your favourite tracks are playing? Well, they've become a miniature artform, displacing the 12" LP covers of old.
Stephanie West has a fascinating piece tonight on how, when it comes to album covers, size isn't everything. And the art, if anything, becomes even more intriguing.
At seven, on four.
Jon
Great album covers
