I have made these connections "David Abrahams, Jon Mendelsohn, the Labour Friends of Israel, Lord Levy...". I have been trying for 2 days to find out why Mendelsohn threw Abrahams out of the Labour Friends of Israel.

Much as I like the comforting idea of an evil puppet-master pulling the strings of this debacle I'm afraid that the depressing truth is that our party has within it a number of people in senior positions who seem to keep their walnut-sized brains in their wallets. There really is no excuse - we've been lectured 'til he's blue in the face by our man from the region about the need to be whiter than white in all our dealings to such an extent that we won't even take sealed postal votes a hundred yards to a post-box let alone accept a donation that is anything other than squeaky-clean.

The only faint ray of comfort is that we're at least seventeen months from a general election and the electorate has an incredibly short collective memory these days...

I don't see the 'puppet-master' theory either, but my old family motto of "he who pays the Piper, pulls the strings" does have some credence.

My concern is about the proximity of these 'friends of Israel' to both positions of power, influence... and Labour Party fundraising.

Andrew Dismore was on the radio yesterday - I think it was on PM - putting the kibosh on theories like that.

Dave, as I say, I don't give much credence to conspiracy theories, and I don't think this is one that would stand up anyway. I suppose really what I'm saying is that I am uncomfortable about individuals who are part of influential pressure groups being too involved in Party funding and so close to the centre of Government, just in terms of transparency. And that doesn't matter if it is this group, Palestinian pressure groups, or even environmental or pro-nuclear campaigners. There needs to be a separation between these type of things to ensure transparent governance, as I think Lord Nolan indicated.

Pasting here my reply to Cllr Bob's comment on my blog post on this blog post, if that makes sense:

I understand your point about other lobbies, but I think it is wrong. I don't think that there is anything wrong with people giving money to the Labour Party who also want the Party to promote causes they believe in which are compatible with Labour policy. For example, I bet a large number of Labour donors contribute to environmental charities, but no-one would think of that as a conspiracy. People only smell conspiracy here, I believe, because they put together names like Abrahams, Mendelsohn and Levy and immediately think conspiracy, because our culture is so saturated with the idea of a pro-Israel conspiracy.

Furthermore, Labour Friends of Israel is an internal campaign group within the Party, not an external lobby group. It is a left-wing, pro-Labour organisation, supportive of Labour sister party in Israel (which has been in opposition for most of the post-1997 period), and made up of Labour Party activists. It is not some neocon front for Sharon and Olmert. There is nothing wrong with LFoI members being close to the government. If a number of donors were members of any other

I also don't understand how a conspiracy theory can take hold when two of the players - Mendelsohn and Abrahams - so clearly don't get on. A pretty dysfunctional conspiracy!