our political correspondent iain watson has the story. this all got under way, really, when the times newspaper reported a bizarre story where apparently, last december, mr menzies, according to the times, had called, met a local official in his party, in his constituency at 3.15 in the morning demanding £5,000, which he said was a matter of life and death, because he had to be released from a flat in which he was locked by, quote, some bad people. in addition to this, the times newspaper also alleged that some other funds that were meant to be used for campaigning had been used for private medical bills for mr menzies as well. now, he told the times newspaper he disputed those claims. nonetheless, the conservative party was carrying out an investigation into the narrow question of whetherfunds had been misused.