Non-Denial Denial

Can you spot what's funny about Blunkett's attempts to distance Blair from the secret loans affair?

Exhibit A

And no-one should believe that a prime minister would be involved in the day-to-day funding of the party.

Exhibit B

But does anyone REALLY think that in the middle of an 18-hour-a-day election campaign he has the time to ask about every contribution "Is this a loan or a gift?"

Did you spot it?

The funny thing is that he categorically does not claim that Blair did not know about these loans. He could have. There's no doubt that he still has the access to know or to find out. It's hard to see why he hasn't simply said "the PM did not know about these loans" if that's what he wants to say.

Unless it's not true, of course. If that isn't true, the best he could do to help out his mate would be to make vague insinuations of Blair's innocence. And, for some reason, that's exactly what he's done.

In the interest of giving Mr Blunkett a chance to provide a straight answer to a straight question, I've attempted to politely ask whether Blair did know about the loans on the Comment is Free post. I wonder if an answer will be forthcoming? Perhaps I should be optimistic. After all, these people are pretty straight guys.

Tags: News, Politics, Money, Sleaze