JNF UK has battened down the hatches after last week's news that the head of its lucrative legacy division, Harvey Bratt, is leaving for the rival UJIA.

This week whisper reached me that JNF's finance director David Lantry had handed in his resignation, too, but when I asked JNF if this was true, it only gave the stonewalling reply that it did not comment on "issues relating to members of staff".

Meanwhile, I wait to see what the charity comes up with on September 12, which it had booked in the communal diary for a fundraising dinner. JNF HQ assured me last week that details were being finalised, but the dinner organiser has since told me that a decision to postpone it until next year had been taken weeks ago because of difficulty in getting a guest speaker, although an alternative event may take place on that date.

I might have hoped to tell you more because at the end of last week JNF phoned to offer us an interview with chief executive David Goodman - only to decide, when we accepted, that the idea was "premature".