Curiouser and curiouser

The one and only Michael White points out the following:

As a conscientious Guardian reader you may well have seen on Monday's news pages that David Abrahams, the Tyneside property developer at the centre of last winter's "Donorgate" uproar, has been told by the police that he has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

He feels the Guardian's story deserved more attention than it got.

He is quite right. This decision by the police follows one in which they decided not to pursue Peter Watt Labour's General Secretary. And it is intriguing.

Surely deliberately using third parties to give donations in order to disguise the origin of the donation must be against the law. If it isn't the law is badly broken. Parties will be able to do what they like.

If the law is not broken in this way it means the police determined that Watt and Abrahams had not deliberately disguised the origin of the donation. I am quite happy to accept this but it turns on its head what was reported at the time. We need to learn more.