Telegraph - Levy: I won't be cash-for-honours fall guy: Tony Blair's chief fund-raiser, Lord Levy, has said he will not be the "fall guy" for the Prime Minister over the cash-for-honours affair. The Labour peer is to be questioned by detectives about his role in brokering £14 million worth of loans to the Labour Party - four of which were from lenders later nominated for peerages. Sources close to Lord Levy said he would tell police that he was against getting wealthy backers to offer secret loans instead of publicly declared donations - but was urged to do so by Mr Blair to save the party from bankruptcy.

You may pull up and pause at that "sources close to Lord Levy" bit, and fair enough.... but please note that - two days following publication - we are still waiting for a firmly-worded denial.

We also have the following to contend with:

Telegraph - Who'll be next in All The Prime Minister's Men?: In his diary entry for October 19, 1998, the Downing Street spin doctor, Lance Price, recorded that his boss, Alastair Campbell, "went off to a meeting on the honours list saying: 'Who can we give gongs to, to get a good story?' or words to that effect."... From its earliest months, the New Labour Government was hoping to squeeze headlines from the honours system. Now it is doing so in spectacular fashion, though scarcely in the way that Campbell and Price had in mind eight years ago.

Yes, times have changed. Now we have online diaries, which can be downright dangerous if you don't know what you're doing....

BlairWatch -Blair 'in it up to his neck,' alleges former head of Labour fundraising: Don't you just love 'internet diaries'? The latest person to be caught out is Dr Nick Bowes, a most interesting author. Dr Nick used to be Head of the Business Liaison Unit at Labour. In other words he used to look for high income donors/lenders. For such a high flyer, Dr Nick seems to be unaware of how to set Blogger's private settings and his blog, intended to be private, was avaliable to the world. He has spent some time discussing the Cash for Honours scandal:

"The whole peerages thing is corrupt. It is one of the biggest forms of patronage still in the hands of the Prime Minister. I just wonder whether the PM really believes in sorting out the House of Lords, as it may just rob him of his one first-class way of rewarding big donors and sponsors of city academies."

"I still think the crucial questions are
(a) why were donors persuaded to change their donations into loans, and
(b) to what extent was the Prime Minister involved?

"In answer to
(a) you have to conclude it is because they were going to get peerages and Number 10 didn't want people to draw a relationship between the two and
(b) the Prime Minister was in it up to his neck, and was personally involved."

Up to his *neck*, folks.... even if Lord Levy were willing to fall on his sword, it wouldn't do Blair much good.

Two things Labour bods have to consider here are:

1) Progress will be determined by the timetable of a police investigation... so this could go on for a while.
2) Blair will try to hedge and spin his way out of this... at your expense.

Happily, this particular problem also provides you with a possible solution to the wider problem... especially if you know where the bodies are buried.

Go on; finish him before he finishes you.

(If self-preservation is all you've got to offer us, at this stage we'll take it.)

UPDATE - Iain Dale has the full text of Nick Bowes' blog entries referring to the Cash for Peerages scandal