Anyone for tennis @ No. 10?

"Love: 40 - that's what I reckon the score is - " Arturo chuckled.

Not a sound you wish to hear too often, I assure you! I really didn't know what he was on about. I was sure that he would enlighten me - and I wasn't wrong.

"Haven't you heard, mi old pal? Anyone but any one can bid to play a game of tennis with our dear PR man of a PM - give him a great hand - 'Boy' David Cameron. Always one with an eye to the main chance, he saw a great way of raising money for the poor old Tory Party! Take a look at this, mi old pal."

He pointed at his tablet and I saw the headline:

Cameron rejects calls to pay back £160K tennis match donation

The article on the BBC News web site read as follows:

David Cameron has rejected calls to pay back a £160,000 donation to the Conservatives from the wife of a former member of President Putin's government.

Mr Cameron said he would not accept money from a "Putin crony" but Lubov Chernukhin "certainly wasn't that".

Mrs Chernukhin bid for a tennis match with the PM and London mayor Boris Johnson at a fundraising event.

A 'Putin crony'!! Ah ha! It seems that this bloke Chernukhin is no longer a crony! No siree! Here is the rest of the enthralling story:

A tennis match with the prime minister and Boris Johnson was the star lot at a Tory fundraising ball held in London earlier this month, which reportedly raised £500,000 for the party's general election war chest.

A Tory spokesman said the gift from Mrs Chernukhin, a longstanding Conservative donor, would not be paid back because it was within the rules and would be declared to the Electoral Commission.

Her husband Vladimir, who was a Russian finance minister, was sacked in 2004 and had fallen out with President Putin and did not have links with the Putin regime, added the spokesman, and the couple were now both British citizens.

So that's all right then! We can all breathe a great big sigh of relief. We (Cameron and the Tory Party) have not breached any EU plans to get tougher on 'Putin'. I am just waiting for the French to yell 'Perfidious Albion', as they are wont! But hang on!!! See what the BBC reported:

Mr Cameron has criticised France for going through with a deal to sell warships to the country despite Moscow's backing for separatists in Ukraine.

But France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius hit back on Monday, suggesting Britain should look at the number of Russian oligarchs in London before criticising his country.

I just knew the Froggies would have their say. Who could blame them?

In the article, the BBC also commented:

A number of wealthy, UK-based Russians have donated money to the Conservative Party in recent years.

At the same fundraising dinner, Ukrainian-born energy magnate Alexander Temerko, a political opponent of Putin who successfully fought extradition proceedings to remain in Britain, is reported to have paid £90,000 for a bronze bust of Mr Cameron, which he donated to the Carlton Club.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28443588

A bronze bust of Cameron!! Perish the thought! Seeing him in the flesh is bad enough but fleeting! A bronze bust would be a permanent feature! It's enough to put a cat off his fish! We'll have to find out what the moggies at the Carlton Club think of it!

It wasn't only the BBC who ran the story. Jason Groves in The Mail wrote:

According to Electoral Commission records Mrs Chernukhin was once declared an ‘impermissible’ donor when she tried to give the Tories £10,000 in April 2012.

This means that at the time she did not meet the criteria required to make a donation to a British political party.

However since then Mrs Chernukhin, who is understood to be a Conservative Party member, has since made three donations worth a total of £5,500, which have all been accepted.

An ‘impermissible’ donor that must have broken the heart of many a Tory Major, living in the shires. What a waste of good brass! Never mind, she made up for it later!

The article concluded:

... a leaked list from last year’s Tory summer ball revealed it was attended by a number of wealthy Russians.

These included Vasily Shestakov, an MP in Russia’s parliament who is an old friend of President Putin and his long-term judo partner. He co-wrote several books on the sport with the Russian President including Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin.

Also present were billionaire banker Andrei Borodin and his model wife Tatanya Korsakova, owners of Britain’s most expensive home, the £140 million Park Place, near Henley-on-Thames.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701234/Tories-pressure-160-000-Putin-minister-s-wife-play-tennis-Boris-Dave-amid-sanctions-call.html

Arturo and I can't play tennis! We don't even like watching it on the TV - it makes us dizzy. We wouldn't pay to watch Cameron and 'Mop Head' Johnson wack a ball across a net - let alone play with them!

However - we do both fancy a taste of caviar. So - next time a former 'crony' of Mr Putin's comes waltzing through the front door, we'll see if we can impress them enough to hitch a lift in their limousine. Maybe it'll take us to Henley on Thames or Chipping Norton or anywhere really! A taste of caviar would go down just fine, whatever the venue!

Bye