Having succeeded only partly in that objective during the 1992-95 Bosnian war the self-styled president of the Bosnian Serbs turned his attention last

Having succeeded only partly in that objective during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the self-styled president of the Bosnian Serbs turned his attention last weekend to the more pressing task of saving his skin from the men who want him to stand trial in The Hague for genocide and crimes against humanity For the moment, he has done the trick. That has enabled Dr Mawhinney to wipe out the overdraft which he announced in March stood at pounds 2.5m. The party is believed to have about a pounds 1m surplus.Dr Mawhinney said there was no evidence of impropriety over the alleged Serb connection but the claims would be investigated thoroughly. Mr Kennedy was unavailable for comment after issuing a statement denying he had arranged "any donation from any foreign company or individual".Leading article, page 13. A City accountant said it was easy for a company to hide a loan in the "creditors" section of its accounts. When it was not repaid, it would be written off.The party has received at least pounds 10m in donations over the past 12 months, party insiders confirmed last night.

Central Office sources have confirmed that corporate donors are now being canvassed to make loans if they feel worried about being publicly revealed as Tory backers.While a cash payment should be declared as a political donation in company accounts, a loan can be kept secret. It added: "The evidence we have obtained to date shows that a large proportion of the pounds 400,000 donations made to the Conservative Party formed part of Mr Nadir's fraud and/or breach of fiduciary duty and/or breach of trust and/or misfeasance as a director."The Independent on Sunday said that the report accompanied a request for the return of the money, which was refused - even though a month earlier, Sir Norman Fowler, then the party chairman, had told the Commons that if Touche Ross provided proof that the money was stolen it would be returned.A senior party source pointed out last night that the Conservatives were not alone as recipients of Mr Nadir's largesse and that a number of charities had received donations. The source said the accountants' report fell far short of proving that the donations were made with stolen money.It has become clear that some Tory donors in the UK are hiding their support for the party by making non-returnable interest free "loans" instead of giving straight cash payments. Our client has been a director of a number of British limited companies in London who have substantial assets in this country. Our client is outraged by any suggestion that he is linked in any way to Radovan Karadzic or the Bosnian Serbs."Robin Cook, Labour's the shadow Foreign Secretary, said that, if true, the allegations amounted to "the worst scandal we have seen in this Parliament".Meanwhile, senior Tory sources insisted that it still had not been proved that the donation made by Mr Nadir had been of stolen funds.The report drawn up by Christopher Morris, senior partner at Touche Ross, administrators of Mr Nadir's failed company, Polly Peck, gave evidence apparently establishing that the pounds 365,000 came from fraud by the company. (If so, the spacemen would give up the quest for intelligent life on Earth and shoot back to Alpha Centauri.)There is a man who thinks he is not exactly Jesus but certainly John the Baptist. Another far-out character creates a "psychic barrier" to ward off a planned motorway; he's known as Fen, as opposed to Finn, an ex-soldier who for the first time in his many reincarnations has survived beyond the age of 21.

Kodan is a junkie who makes the lads in Trainspotting look responsible. Black Pearl is quite a girl, clad in only an orange vest and wellingtons. There's a bunch of folk all named Wally.Stone joins enthusiastically in their road protests, free festivals, anti-Criminal Justice Act demos and pow-wows in teepees He dances in woods to illicit sound systems. Yet even he sometimes makes his excuses and leaves: "I really didn't want to sit around a fire with a bunch of naked hippies drumming and chanting." He loses patience with Mung and Stew, a couple of free-range spirits who fail to return his hired car, which they have puked over anyway."This book is a mess," he admits I am glad to say he is right He offers no over-confident Tony Parsonifications ("... a design of shoelace which led directly to the birth of Punk Next slide, please").

The book does not hang together - but no matter: each chapter has a wonderful life of its own with a terrific cast of characters. Even when he does not go out auditioning for them, his raw material knocks on his door. The man who comes to repair his computer turns out to have encountered an angel in Glastonbury Abbey.Stone was not personally present at the Battle of the Beanfield but for him it was the day the music died. June the 1st 1985 saw an appalling police riot in a Wiltshire field. Their batons broke the teeth and smashed the heads of travellers who had been dragged through the shattered windows of their own vehicles. ITN's reporter witnessed the most brutal police behaviour of his career: the clubbing of people holding babies in their arms, for example.

The worst of his footage went missing overnight and by an astonishing coincidence, says Stone, the BBC lost theirs too. Conspiracy theories flourish in the Underground and you begin to see why.. "I remember seeing all these churches in Birmingham. And being a religious man I thought to myself, 'This is a Christian country. The people must be friendly and good.' It didn't take me too long to find out what England was really like." Andy Hamilton was one of the first Jamaicans to come to Britain in the post-war years, arriving here in 1949 A saxophonist, he had spent a few years gigging in America.