Must be a coincidence?

David Abrahams, the shy Labour Party donor, may have received a reward for his generosity.

The Indepedent on Sunday yesterday revealed that David Abrahams gave £99,000 to the Labour Party just before Christmas 2005, via three of his proxy donors. Within a month an application for planning permission for a business park which he had made was given preferential treatment. It was placed among 21 schemes nationally passed to test speed of planning for "large and complex developments". Objections over its effects on traffic, by the Highways Agency were "suddenly and unexpectedly withdrawn."

The Department for Communities and Local Government claimed that the identities of developers were unknown to those who decided their inclusion in the "fast-track pilot scheme". In the case of Mr. Abrahams, it would not have made any difference, as the Labour Party claim not to have known he was donor!

The LibeDem leadership contender, Christ Hume, alerted the Durham Police, who have subsequently spoken with the Audit Commission.

Of course, this may be yet another of the strange coincidences to which the Labour Party has recently been prone, and one where nobody knows anything so nothing can be proved.