In 1999, a parliamentary inquiry concluded that it could not prove that masons exert improper influence on public life.
But in Ecuador at the time no such rules applied, making it difficult to monitor whether a judge had been subjected to improper influence.
This MP believes that leaves the shadow chancellor open to suggestions of improper influence and so one or other job should be taken away from him.
In practice, defining the difference between reasonable criticism and improper influence may prove every bit as difficult as drawing a precise line between perception and reality.
The rationale for Mr Blair's trust, approved in advance by Sir Gordon Downey, the par liamentary commissioner, was to pre-empt accusations of improper influence on the party leader.
Ms McAlpine said public representatives were entitled criticise decisions made by the courts, but that it was "important that judges should be free to act independently and without improper influence".
However a senior official added that judges should not be subjected to improper external influence.
He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.
CNN: Transcript: Webb says Bush took U.S. to war 'recklessly'
The majority report also acknowledges that another major question that grew out of the election was left unanswered: whether a big increase in "issue advocacy" advertising by nonprofit groups was an improper attempt to influence the outcome of elections, and whether the groups' "independent expenditures" were truly independent of the campaigns they benefited.
According to court records filed in the latest case, in 2005 and 2006 Mr Vance and Mr Ertel were working in Iraq for Shield Group Security, a privately-held security company, when they became suspicious the company was making improper payments to Iraqi officials in exchange for influence, and that its employees were engaged in illicit weapons-trafficking and other illegal activity.
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