One of the remaining mysteries over Adam Werritty was the identity of the final donor to Pargav. This morning’s Times said the accounts only identified “Barclays PR” (contributing £30,000) as the donor. Barclays Bank said it was not the source, indicating that the money came through the private account of a Barclays customer.

Mick Davis, chief executive of Xstrata, the FTSE 100 mining company, is a close friend of both Michael Lewis and Poju Zabludowicz, two donors whose identities had already been made public. (Zabludowicz chairs Bicom, the pro-Israel lobbying group, and Lewis was deputy chair of Bicom a few years ago.) The South Africa-born executive is head of the United Jewish Israeli Appeal, a charitable body in the UK. Read more

When Britain signed up to some of the world’s toughest carbon-reduction targets earlier in the year there was a major get-out clause.

It was announced that the targets would be reviewed in 2014 to make sure the EU was moving in line with the UK. If Europe was not hitting its targets Britain would be allowed to miss its own. This was described then as the “rip-chord” to make sure Britain remained competitive.

George Osborne took the credit for the decision – during his conference speech – prompting some commentators to think this was a new policy.

Now Mr Osborne is once again seeking to ensure that his name is attached to a separate government initiative to alleviate the impact of a major green policy. In next month’s growth review (or ‘mini-Budget’) he will announce measures to help the energy-intensive users, such as steel companies and chemicals firms, hit by the Read more