Summaries

Things I find astonishing today:

That Peter Watt, Labour's general secretary, did not realise donations made to the party in someone else's name would be illegal. I could have told him that. You'd think the party that made the law would know, wouldn't you?

That David Abrahams claims he did not realise that donating to the Labour party in someone else's name would be illegal. I could have told him too.

That Peter Watt claims to be the only party official who knew the party was receiving donations under false names. This is just plain wrong. Baroness Jay certainly knew because she warned Hilary Benn about it.

That Hariet Harman claims she took the money from Janet Kidd "in good faith" without knowing that the true donor was David Abrahams. Come off it Hariet, Hilary Benn worked it out, and your husband is the party treasurer.

That Gordon Brown is claiming no knowledge of the scandal. His chief fundraiser Jon Mendelsohn sure as hell seemed to know, and was sending letters to Abrahams. And Gordon seems to have turned down a donation from at least one of Abrahams' aliases. Why would that be? And of course Baroness Jay knew, but apparently didn't tell him, very odd.

And While we're on the subject of Baroness Jay, how the hell did she know about the illegal donations when everyone else is claiming ignorance? And why didn't she tell anyone (or did she)?

Something I simply don't understand this morning:

The Catholic League in the US has urged people to ban their children from, watching new film, The Golden Compass, because of it's atheist message. Isn't religion about pursuing truth? I'd have thought alternative views to one's own were an important part of that pursuit. Wouldn't it broaden one's knowledge? Are you scared of what you might find out. Threatened that your world order might be upset perhaps?

Something I achieved this morning:

On the train I memorised the order of an entire pack of cards, looking through it just once, in about 10 minutes.