April 6, 2012

Visit from Mohammed Anwar of the Pakistani political party MQM, which has 51 Members in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, 25 in the National Assembly of Pakstan, and 7 in the Senate. They campaign against feudalism, illiteracy, poverty, religious extremism and obscurantism

Bone marrow trephine from last August

Date Referral Received: 19/07/2011 13:00:00
Date Referral Sent: 19/07/2011 00:00:00

Additional Clinical Information: MPN



FINAL REPORT
Diagnosis (1): Consistent with Myeloproliferative disorder


Morphology [M]
Lab Accession Number: 11B0906711
Bone Marrow Word Processed:
Eric AVEBURY - DOB: 29/09/28 - D442931
Indication: Previous MALT lymphoma of lung, treated with surgery only. Noted thrombocytosis. MPL on PB positive. BM to assess MPN.
FBC (19/07/11): Hb 10.4, WBC 6.2, neut 3.8, plat 599
Site of Sample : Right posterior iliac crest
Particles : Multiparticulate
Cellularity : Hypercellular particles and trails
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Myelogram : ~
BL: 2% Pro: 15% My: 17% Me: 19%
Neut: 31% Ly: 6% PC: 1% Eryth: 9%
M:E Ratio : 9
Erythropoiesis : Relatively decreased, normal maturation
Granulopoiesis : Increased, mildly dysplastic
Blast cells : Not increased
Lymphocytes : Normal numbers and morphology
Plasma cells : Normal numbers and morphology
Megakaryocytes : Increased in number, abnormally large with abnormal hyperchromatic chromatin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion : Consistent with MPN.

Reported by : F.Pinto, Haem Registrar
Validating Consultant : R.Ireland


Immunophenotyping [IP]
Lab Accession Number: 11H0003005
Sample Type: Bone Marrow
Lab Comment:
Laboratory Comments
Results from a gate representing approx. 90% of TNC's. No immunophenotypic evidence of excess CD34+ myeloid progenitors.

Conclusion:
Consultant Comments
Multiparticulate. Hypercellular particles and trails. Megakaryocytes increased in number and very abnormal - large, with abnormal
hyperchromatic nuclei. No excess of blasts by morphology or immunophenotyping. Consistent with MPN. pp Dr Robin Ireland


Cytogenetics [CY]
Cytogenetics Karyotype: 46,XY [8]
Cytogenetics Result: ONLY eight metaphase cells available for analysis, insufficient for complete analysis. No clonal abnormalities detected.
NB This sample had a low white cell count.

Molecular1 Analysis [MA1]
Report Comment: Whole sample stored. Sample already tested under IOG reference (IOG-11-6033951).


Histology [H]
Lab Accession Number: 11S0010916
Histology Report:
SPECIMEN DETAILS
Bone marrow trephine.
CLINICAL DETAILS
MPN.
MACROSCOPIC DETAILS
A core of bony tissue measuring 10mm in length together with multiple fragments of haemorrhagic material which measure in aggregate
15x15x3mm.
BLOCK DETAILS
A1 M (1) All levels retic decal
(SK)
MICROSCOPIC DETAILS
The bone marrow trephine shows increased cellularity (70-80%) with all three haemopoietic cell lines represented. There is increase in number
of myeloid series but there is maturation to neutrophils. There is increased number of pleomorphic megakaryocytes with marked enlargement,
nuclear atypia and clustering around sinusoids and in paratrabecular locations. Few normoblasts are present.
Immunohistochemistry with CD34 shows no blasts. CD61 highlighted the clustered and abnormal megakaryocytes. CD117 is positive in 5% of
the cells including mast cells and erythroblasts. p53 is negative.
The reticulin is increased (grade 2).
The appearances are consistent with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) although some features would favour myelodysplastic syndrome/
myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPD/MDS).
DIAGNOSIS
Bone marrow trephine: Consistent with myelodysplastic syndrome/ myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPD/MDS).

Blood test April 2, 2012, and previous ones

Haematology

Blood test at 08.30 this morning, followed by a consultation with Dr L, nominally at 10.30 but actually 40 minutes later as usual. The King's appointment system is in need of a review.

Platelets were 564 compared with the previous reading of 532, and I am to take Hydroxycarbamide Monday-Saturday instead of Monday-Friday. Neutrophils were 1.53 compared with 1.73 last time, but over a year they have fluctuated a bit. Dr L isn't too bothered about them. WBC, PLT, Hb and Neutrophils over time see graphs above. You can see them more clearly if you double click on the item.

DEr L hadn't received Dr Claire Harrison's letter of March 20, so I have scanned and emailed it to him. For reasons of data protection, I believe, the NHS don't use email, causing them and their patients unnecessary delay and expense.

I am to have another blood test in two weeks time to check that the platelets are descending with the higher dose of Hydroxycarbamide, and a further appointment with Dr L at 10.10 on May 14.

Torture and murder by police in Rabwah, Pakistan

AHMADIYYA MUSLIM JAMAAT
22 Deer Park Road, London, SW19 3TL, UK
Tel: 0208 544 7678
Email:press@ahmadiyya.org.uk
Web: Alislam.org/press / www.twitter.com/AhmadiyyatIslam
LONDON, 1 April 2012
PRESS RELEASE
BRUTAL POLICE TORTURE LEADS TO DEATH OF AHMADI MUSLIM IN RABWAH
It is with great sadness that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat confirms that on 30 March 2012 a well-known and much loved Ahmadi Muslim, Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad (43), died after succumbing to injuries inflicted during brutal torture by local police in Rabwah, Pakistan.
Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad was taken into police custody without any justification on 10 February 2012. He remained in custody until 26 March 2012 and during this period he was made to endure the most inhuman and depraved forms of torture, which caused internal injuries that were ultimately fatal.
Whilst in custody, Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad was hung upside down from his ankles for long periods. Furthermore, whilst laid supine, an extremely heavy wooden roller, similar to those used to flatten cricket pitches, was rolled all over his body, as attendants stood at each side of him making sure he could not move. Such inhumane and merciless treatment led to multiple organ failure and crushed his muscles. These are just a few examples of the torture inflicted.
Following such relentless treatment, Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad was released on 26 March 2012. Despite continuous medical treatment he was unable to recover and thus on 30 March 2012 he passed away as yet another martyr of Ahmadiyyat.
The deceased is survived by his wife, four children and his parents.
Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad was the President of the Nusrat Abad chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Rabwah. Thus his arrest, made without any justification, was simply an attempt to try and defame the local Ahmadiyya Muslim administration. The brutal treatment he suffered occurred despite the fact that the police were unable to lay a single charge against him and ultimately was forced to release him.
The spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Abid Khan said:
“It is devastating that a wife has lost her husband and four young children have lost their father in such an inhumane and merciless way. It is absolutely clear that if Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad had not been a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat then he would never have been subject to such abhorrent torture. Hatred and persecution of any organisation or its members must be condemned by all those who believe in peace and tolerance. Such attacks serve only to destabilise society and to spread discord.”
The International Community, Media and Human Rights organisations are all urged to take action to safeguard the basic human and civil rights of Ahmadi Muslims both in Pakistan and in other countries where they face discrimination. In an era where freedom of religion and belief is accepted as a basic human right throughout the world it is of disbelief that anti-Ahmadiyya legislation is still active and indeed still being enforced in Pakistan.
End
Further Info: press@ahmadiyya.org.uk / 0208-5447678

In the garden, late morning

 

With Dr Colin Butler

 

March 23: visit by Dr Colin Butler, from the Australian NGO BODHI, working in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and elsewhere in South Asia

With Jenny Bartlett

 

At the 50th anniversary dinner with Jenny Bartlett, who was my wonderful Secretary for most of the eight years I was in the Commons.

Short week

Yesterday the House went into Easter recess, and we have until April 23, it seems because the Government had overlooked the fact that the Commons will be spending the week it comes back on the budget, and will therefore be unable to deal with the three major Bills sent back to them from the Lords until the following week. So there is no legislative business for us to do until they have considered our amendments. How could the business managers be so incompetent as to have overlooked this until a day or two before we were due to rise?

Monday I attended a meeting with our Special Representative on Sudan, who is coming to the end of his term of office. Its a really bleak picture, and getting even worse now as the North attacks across the frontier with the South, as well as committing war crimes in South Kordofan and Blue Nile against non-Arab peoples.

At question time I intervened in a question on piracy off the coast of Somalia, http://bit.ly/H43815


Tuesday I spoke on an amendment dealing with clinical negligence cases brought on behalf of children, in the Legal Aid etc Bill see http://bit.ly/HmEY61

Wednesday morning, with other members of EU Subcommittee F, to the Serious Organised Crime Agency in Vauxhall for a briefing on their work, and particularly the treatment of Suspicious Activity Reports, the mechanism used in compliance with European law to detect money laundering and terrorist offences. Their database contains 1.38 million records, which are retained for a maximum of six years, and are accessible to specialists in the law enforcement agencies under strict conditions. The ability of the software to rapidly identify links n=between SARS and to display them visually is an effective tool, and it was good to hear about an effective large IT system that is delivering results.

Wednesday evening, to the Index Awards ceremony at the St Pancras Hotel, which has been restored to its spectacular Victorian splendour. The Innovation award, supported by Google, went to Freedom Fone, a system developed by the Zimbabwean NGO Kubatana to enable ordinary citizens to communicate on civic and human rights issues even in the repressive surroundings of Mugabe’s dictatorship. The arts award went to the Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, who has suffered beatings and threats of death but continues to satirize Arab dictators including Assad. The Index 40th anniversary award went to The Research and Information Centre “Memorial” in St Petersburg, a huge archive of material relating to the era of Soviet repression. To my delight, the Advocacy award was won by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and it was a great thrill to be there to see my dear friend Nabeel Rajab being presented with it.

With Nabeel Rajab at the Index Awards Ceremony yesterday evening. He is President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which received the Award for Advocacy. I was really delighted to be there to see my dear friend honoured for his brave and persistent stand in very difficult and dangerous circumstances. It was a splendid occasion at the Gallery of the St Pancras Hotel, and Index is doing a great job highlighting the enormous sacrifices made by people like Nabeel in the cause of human rights.

Morgan Tsvangirai

Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, and Kate Hoey MP, Chair of the All-Party Zimbabwe Group, at the meeting of the Group this evening in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Rooms. He was upbeat about the political and economic future of Zimbabwe, whilst acknowledging that some problems need to be solved with the aid of Presidents Zuma and Dos Santos through SADC.

Haematology at Guy's

Saw Dr Claire Harrison, who co-authored the 2008 study which included 24 patients with the W515L mutation. None of them had the combination of MPD/MDS, however, so it wasn't likely that my disease will follow their course. Dr H said there was an Italian study of MPD/MDS patients that she would refer to, and also see whether others working in the field had come across the combination with W515L. Work is going on to construct an international database of patients with these blood cancers, but that's still some way off

Meanwhile, Dr Harrison was going to refer back to the results of the bone marrow biopsy, which I think originally confirmed the diagnosis of MDS. She said that MDS is more aggressive than MPD, but the blood test results were quite stable. In particular, the platelets (483) were almost down to the upper end of the normal range (450) and neutrophils (2.50) were within normal range. Only RBC and Hb were considerably outside the normal range, so it seems that the hydroxycarbamide is doing its job.

With Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the NSS

 

At the Secularist of the Year today, with the winner Peter Tatchell, and Muriel Turner

 

Sue, me, Lyulph, JW and Safia at the dinner

 

Lindsay and Alan at the 50th Anniversary dinner

 

Rest of the week

Monday Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (5 contributions) http://bit.ly/zFz4fZ

Tuesday Information Committee Annual Report http://bit.ly/w6sCKI ; Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (2 contributions) http://bit.ly/zFrZkI

Wednesday LASPO Bill again http://bit.ly/FOrpdY

Friday Middle East http://bit.ly/FPrGzs

50th Anniversary Dinner

Wednesday, the National Liberal Club gave a splendid dinner attended by a capacity 120 people, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Orpington by-election. Many of the 1962 warriors were there and we had a great time exchanging reminiscences. Here is an extract from my after-dinner speech, proposing the toast to LibDem candidates:


The arguments that are going on within the coalition reflect the tensions caused by the need, accepted on all sides, to eliminate the deficit. There’s no fundamental principle which decides who’s to pay the bill, but I imagine the Prime Minister must have regretted echoing the slogan ‘We’re all in this together’ coined by George Osborne in the early days of the coalition. It has turned out to be manifestly untrue, and Liberal Democrats have objected to policies that load extra burdens onto the poor and vulnerable, while allowing the fat cats to become even more obese. That’s why some of us have voted against our Government in the Lords on amendments to the Welfare Reform and Legal aid Bills.

But my very welcome task this evening is to propose a toast to our candidates, who aren’t facing an easy time and are doing remarkably well in a climate where its only just starting to be recognised what an impressive job we’re doing to radically improve unpopular measures, and particularly the Health Bill, on which the LibDem team has given the coalition plenty of time to think gain, and secured major concessions. We have ensured that the future of the NHS is guaranteed, with the Secretary of State ultimately responsible, and accountable for a comprehensive health service funded by the taxpayer and free to all at the point of delivery. So the LibDem candidate has a good story to tell the electors on how we have shifted that Bill light years away from being the end of the NHS, as it was labelled by some critics when it was first published.

But the candidate needs something more for her election address - and I hope we shall make a really determined effort to get equal numbers of men and women candidates next time.

We are struggling to make a reality of the claim that we’re all in it together. We need to intensify the LibDem demand for a mansion tax on houses worth over £2 million, and the ending of higher rate tax relief on pension contributions, which Danny Alexander estimates would save £7 billion. Ending winter fuel payments to Britons resident abroad, and making them taxable, would save a great deal more, and if coupled with raising the income tax threshold to £10k as we propose, wouldn’t hurt people on modest incomes. The child benefit conundrum could be solved by withdrawing it on the basis of a joint family income threshold rather than when one of the partners gets into the higher tax bracket. And we should scrap Trident, saving £25 billion according to the LibDem think-tank Centre Forum.

To these I would personally add substantial increases in the duties on alcohol, sufficient to produce an all-round increase of 10% on all alcoholic drinks, cutting hospital admissions by 50,000 a year, making a dent in the £2.7 billion cost to the NHS of alcohol abuse, with commensurate benefits to the criminal justice system.
At the same time we should stop handing out money to greedy millionaires to place the unemployed as free shelf-stackers in Tescos and pay themselves huge dividends. The privatisation of getting people back to work is a disaster.

Instead, how about providing low-interest loans to local authorities and social housing agencies to build low-rent housing, reducing housing benefit, reducing unemployment benefit and getting the economy moving again. To prevent this policy slowing down the reduction of the deficit, it could be funded by retaining the 50p tax rate on higher incomes, and even reintroducting supertax at 66 2/3 % on incomes over say £250,000 until we’re out of the wood.

Some of our leaders tell me they have read The Spirit Level on the correlation between inequality and a variety of social harms such as violent crime, physical and mental ill-health, educational under-achievement, obesity and lack of social mobility; but its argued that the authors’ evidence had been rebutted by some respectable academics. Actually, the authors have responded to their critics , and comprehensively demolished their arguments.

I’m also told that LibDems believe in equality of opportunity rather than equality per se, and that they are separate and distinct objectives. Well actually, they aren’t. Research shows that in more unequal societies, there is also less social mobility. The UK is at or near the wrong end of the scale of industrialised countries on both inequality and social mobility, while the four Scandinavian countries are near the top with both variables. If we could reduce our level of inequality to Scandinavian levels it would achieve a major improvement in equality of opportunity. It has been shown that the benefits would be felt at the top as well as at the bottom end of the scale.

The way to differentiate ourselves from the Tories as we approach the next general election would be to adopt the slogan ‘We can Conquer Inequality’, and in the meanwhile to stand up to them in Parliament against measures that breach that principle. Tim Farron says we have to demonstrate a commitment to fairness that the Tories won’t match, and that’s bound to mean some heavy weather inside the Coalition, which I dare say would be reflected in the election addresses of our candidates.

So does the Cobbies

 

Lindsay sits in the garden

 

The whie camelias, only a tiny bush

 

Camelia in our front garden

 

Fairly busy week

I have spoken on each day this week, though only brief interventions:

8 March 2012
Health and Social Care Bill

7 March 2012
Death Penalty (2 contributions)

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (2 contributions)

6 March 2012
Gypsies and Travellers (2 contributions)

5 March 2012
Legal Aid: Social Welfare Law

Monday, a very useful meeting with Paul Boateng, who has kindly agreed to attend the launch of the programme to vaccinate children against Pneumonia and rotavirus in Ghana on behalf of the All-Party Group against Childhood Pneumonia at the end of April. This is a world first! Ghana is the only country so far to deal with both these diseases, the two biggest killers of children in the developing world, at the same time.

Tuesday, did a TV programme for al-Aalam TV on Bahrain; Lyulph came to lunch, and in the evening a reception in the River Room for the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, at which the guest speaker was my old friend Sir Nigel Rodley.

Wednesday, voted against the Government twice on the Legal Aid etc Bill, on amendments restoring the right of appellants against official decisions about entitlement to welfare benefits to legal aid in complex cases both at the First-Tier Tribunal and on appeals against the decisions in the First Tier Tribunal The argument was very one-sided, not a single member apart from the Minister supporting the Government's case, I have already explained that although I am a firm supporter of the Government's intention to eliminate the deficit, I don't agree that we should make the poor and vulnerable share the burden, when there is plenty of scope for taxing the rich, and in the case of the NHS, taxing bad habits like drinking, smoking and eating harmful substances like sugar and fats.

 

See report at http://www.ghrd.org/

Bangladesh demo at Parliament Feb 29

 

Haematology

Blood test this morning at 08.40, followed by appointment with Dr L in Haematology Outpatients. Platelets slightly up at 532 compared with 526 last time, Neutrophils a bit better at 1.73, but no change in the Hydroxycarbamide medication is recommended, Dr L handed us a list of things to look out for and to be reported to the 24-hour chemotherapy advice service. Patients are supposed to have a 'Chemotherapy Alert Card, the first we had heard of this.

Dr L said he would remind Dr Harrison at St Thomas's, who is following up 24 patients with the C-MPL W515L from the May 2008 study published in the journal Blood, that she was going to see me.

Emlyn Hooson

it was sad to learn of Emlyn Hooson's death this morning, and I have been thinking of him not only as a great figure in the politics of Wales and the UK, but as a great personal friend over half a century. One of the first engagements I undertook after my own by-election was to speak at Emlyn's by-election in Llanidloes, and we were close allies in the successful campaign to revive the Liberal Party in the sixties, We holidayed together in Brittany, where we spoke for devolution in the French political system, and Emlyn taught me the few sentences of Welsh that I have used whenever I have spoken in Wales. For years he was a brilliant performer in the Lords, and there he always spoke up for Wales. It is a privilege to have been a companion of Emlyn, one of the finest and truest Liberals of our generation.

The Week in Parliament

Monday, my question about the drafting of the new constitution and progress towards a new electoral register,needed before the deadline of the elections in June 2013 [http://bit.ly/zv5hWG]. By that time Mugabe will be 89 and it is becoming increasingly unrealistic for Zanu PF to say that he will be their Presidential candidate. That's why there is a faction within the party that wants elections by the end of 2012, even though many of the provisions of the Global Political Agreement remain unfulfilled. Free political activity, freedom of assembly, the rule of law, and impartiality of state institutions, for instance, are all absent, and it remains to be seen whether SADC, as the guarantors of the GPA, will step up the pressure.

Tuesday morning, I chaired and spoke at a seminar on Bahrain in Fielden House, one of the annexes of Parliament. For reasons that aren't clear of transparent, Black Rod won't allow TV cameras or even photography in the Committee Rooms of the main building, though unofficially I understand that its to avoid giving the impression that the views expresed are those of the House itself. I spoke about the failure to implement some of the most important recommendations of the Bassiouni Commission of Inquiry into the human rights violations that followed the start of the uprising in February 2011. None of the most important political prisoners have been released, nor have they been compensated for the torture an incommunicado detention they endured in the weeks after they were detained.

In the afternoon I listened to the debate on the Welfare Reform Bill, when the House considered amendments rejected by the Commons, and considered alternative amendments that were proposed in lieu of the rejected ones - which couldn't be tabled in their original form because the Commons asserted financial privilege. The Commons have exclusive and undisputed jurisdiction over taxation, but the principle has been widened so that it now covers any financial matter such as, in this case, benefits.

There was a three-line Whip but I voted against the Government on an amendment by Lord Best, a Crossbencher, dealing with the so-called 'bedroom tax', a provision that withdraws part of the housing benefit now paid to a family which occupies more than the number of rooms it is said to need. Thus for example if a member of the family dies, the benefit may be docked and they may be compelled to move or make do on income which is insufficient for their needs.


I disagree with the idea that in order to pay off the deficit we need to cut benefits from the poor and vulnerable, as in some parts of this Bill. There is plenty of scope for raising the money quicker and more effectively. For instance, the Daily Telegraph quoted Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander MP on February 11 2012 as saying that the better-off are receiving overly-generous tax relief when they invest money for their retirement. He said that removing the higher-rate tax relief would save the Exchequer more than £7 billion and make the system fairer.

Ending winter fuel allowance and free TV licences for higher rate taxpayers would be another way of increasing revenue.

Duties on alcohol sufficient to cause an all-round increase of 10% in retail prices would raise £1.5 billion, and at the same time yield large savings in health and criminal justice. Reggie Maudling told me, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he believed in taxing people’s vices rather than their virtues, and I agree. We should use fiscal means to deter the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and harmful things people eat such as salt.

Some of our leaders tell me they have read The Spirit Level on the correlation between inequality and a variety of social harms such as violent crime, physical and mental ill-health, educational under-achievement, obesity and lack of social mobility, but they say the authors’ evidence had been rebutted by some respectable academics. Actually, the authors have responded to their critics on The Equality Trust website [http://bit.ly/ejLDF2], and I think a dispassionate reader would agree the authors have won the argument. Their message was reinforced in a powerful New Statesman leader Too many feel that they have no stake in our unequal society [http://bit.ly/rEHWZE].

I recognise that Liberal Democrat Ministers have mitigated a great many of the harmful effects of Government Bills, and they are to be congratulated and thanked for those achievements; but it does seem to me utterly illiberal, politically unwise, and downright immoral to penalise those at the bottom end of the income scale for the economic crisis. My decision to vote against the Government wasn't the careless whim of a moment, and I have listened to, read and considered long and hard the debates on the relevant sections of the Welfare Reform and LASPO Bills we have been debating.

Wednesday morning, Subcommittee F considered the draft txt of our report on EU Drugs Policy, due to be published in the near future.

Thursday, I chipped in on Janet Whitaker's Question on the definition of Gypsies and Travellers [http://bit.ly/wkaHHN]. There are two separate definitions in law, one for housing policy and the other for planning. The planning definition is based on lifestyle rather than ethnicity, and since Travellers are no longer nomadic because there are hardly any temporary stopping places, this has caused some problems in the courts. Ann Medhurst applied for planning permission to develop land she owns in Tonbridge, as a caravan site for her family, and the High Court decided that she was not a Gypsy for the purposes of planning Circular 1/2006, though it was common ground that she was an ethnic Gypsy [http://bit.ly/wIxSoW]. This case is now going to the Court of Appeal.

Three written questions this week: on plans for Black history month, and the UK's attendance at the Bahrain International Airshow in January 2012 [http://bit.ly/zbrAUc],and on the number of Roma in England and Wales. They say there are no reliable estimates, but the Roma Support Group estimate the number as 500,000. Th 2011 Census won't help much either, because 'Roma' wasn't one of the ethnicities from which respondenrs were asked to choose.

 

Cobweb gets into his basket

 

Bleak scene in the park

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Friday, a cliffhanger in the Lords, to see whether Davis Steel's House of Lords Reform Bil would get through report, in spite of the hundreds of amendments on the Order Paper. In the end he had to sacrifice the clause ending the perpetuation of the hereditaries by means of by-elections to replace any of the 91 who die, to placate the die-hards and save the pprovisions dealing with retirement and expulsion. There is now a chance that time will be found for Third Reading and a quick race through the Commons, to get the Bill through by the end of the Session.

In the evening, to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, to hear first a discussion between Chi-Chi Nwanoku MBE, the OAE's double bas player, and Sally Beamish, composer of Spinal Chords, the London premiere of which the OAE were to play. The composition is a recu=itation about what it's like to be a tetraplegic, based on the experience of Melanie Reid, the Olymic rider whose spine was broken in a fall from her horse. It was hard to think about the accompanying music when the words described such a catastrophic change in a young life.

There was sumptuous Handel, two cantatas from the Italian period, with the Italian soprano Roberta Invernizzi.

Afterwards we had a brief chat with Chi-Chi, and met the viola player Annette Isserlis.

Penelope's visit

 

After Cousin Penelope visited me for a cup of tea on Wednesday she went on to the Tent City at St Paul's, where she attended a discussion on the Welfare Reform Bill. The meeting decided to lobby Parliament next Wednesday, but unfortunately the Parliamentary proceedings are due to end on Tuesday, when finacial privilege will be invoked to stop the Lords discussing the amendments we had passed, and were rejected by the Commons - including the cap.

DRC

Is it safe to return failed asylum-seekers to the DRC? The UK Borders Agency thinks so, but an NGO has studied the situation and has serious doubts. We will be able to judge the position better when the Country of Origin Information Service publishes the first update of their analysis since 2009, see http://bit.ly/zOjaFj

 

Speaking at Emanuel School on Tuesday

 

With some of the sixth-formers at Emanuel School, Tuesday February 7

 

Dear old friend Addai Sebo, now growing hardwood trees in Ghana

Bahrain

The Bahrain International Commission of Inquiry into the gross and syatematic human rights violations committed in Bahrain following the uprising of February 2011 recommended that the sentences passed on political prisoners after they had been detained incommunicado and tortured for weeks should be 'reviewed'.

But the Commissioners made it clear that they intended the prisoners should be exonerated and released, and their records should be expunged of the charges, see http://bit.ly/ulUHbw

Cherif Bassiouni, head of the BICI, is in Bahrain now, seeing what progress is being made on implementing his recommendations, all of which the hereditary dictator said he accepted. We should be told when the victims of the military courts are to be released, and whether they will be compensated for their false imprisonment and injuries sustained under torture.

Ghana elections December 2012

Ghana

Question
Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will have discussions with the Government of Ghana, the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union, on the monitoring of the Ghanaian elections in December 2012.[HL15226]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): The UK maintains close contact with the Government of Ghana on a wide range of issues. This will include the monitoring of this year's elections there. In addition, we regularly engage with ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) and the African Union about their election monitoring missions. Ghana's elections will form part of those discussions.

Sack paid advisers and get them to work for nothing

Education: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children

Question
Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the equality impact assessment with regard to the ending of the two specialist consultancy services provided to the Department for Education by Arthur Ivatts OBE and Margaret Wood, on the education of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.[HL15202]

7 Feb 2012 : Column WA37


The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Hill of Oareford): The Department for Education advocates the use of equality impact assessments when developing new policies or making significant changes to existing ones, but would not routinely use them when ending consultancy contracts. No formal equality impact assessments were drawn up with regard to ending the contracts of Arthur Ivatts OBE and Margaret Wood 21 days earlier than originally planned.

The department is very grateful to Arthur Ivatts and Margaret Wood for the support which they have provided on the education of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils. The department continues to seek their advice on an informal basis, through its regular meetings with the Advisory Council on the Education of Romany and Other Travellers and through the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller education stakeholder group.

Monitored sobriety 24/7 for repeat alcohol-related offences?

The Government are willing to pilot the use of court orders imposed on offenders who undertake to comply with them, requiring 24/7 sobriety, remotely monitored. Schemes based on this principle have worked in the US, cutting recidivism in half. See Column 90, http://bit.ly/x3YGhk

DfID's assistance for Dalit girls' education

India

Question
Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the debate on international development policy on 1 December 2011, what initiatives they have taken in connection with the Secretary of State for International Development's recent visit to India concerning the Dalit communities there, particularly with a view to ensuring that Dalit girls enter and remain in education.[HL15174]

Baroness Northover: We are pressing ahead with the design of a stipend scheme benefiting over 200,000 tribal and Dalit girls in Orissa, conditional on their enrolment and regular attendance at secondary school. In addition we will continue to support free schooling and residential hostels for some of the poorest Dalit, tribal and Muslim girls across India as part of our

7 Feb 2012 : Column WA49

contribution to the Indian Government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (basic education) and Mahila Samakhiva (women's empowerment scheme) programmes.

Blood test Jan 30

King's College Hospital
Patient Results
All results -Performed since 30-Jan-12
Avebury, Eric
PRE
M83y Haematology OPD
D442931 / V6938322 29-Sep-1928
de Lavallade, Hugu
30-Jan-12 08:10 Renal/Liver/Bone/Urea

Sodium 141 [135-145 mmol/L]
Potassium 4.9 [3.5-5.0 mmol/L]
Urea 7.2 H [3.3-6.7 mmol/L]
Creatinine 114 [45-120 umol/L]
Estimated GFR 53 [mL/min]
Calcium 2.27 [mmol/L]
Corrected Calcium 2.17 [2.15-2.6 mmol/L]
Phosphate 1.11 [0.80-1.40 mmol/L]
Total Protein 77 [60-80 g/L]
Albumin 45 [35-50 g/L]
Globulin 32 [25-35 g/L]
Bilirubin (Total) 7 [3-20 umol/L]
Alkaline Phosphatase 87 [30-130 IU/L]
Aspartate Transaminase 27 [10-50 IU/L]
Gamma-glutamyl 20 [1-55 IU/L]
Transferase


30-Jan-12 08:10 Full Blood Count

WBC 3.97 L [4.00-11.00 10^9/L]
RBC 3.16 L [4.5-5.8 10^12/L]
Hb 10.2 L [13.0-16.5 g/dL]
PCV 0.329 L [0.400-0.540 L/L]
MCV 103.9 H [77.0-95.0 fL]
MCH 32.2 [20.0-36.0 pg]
MCHC 31.0 L [32.0-37.0 g/dL]
RDW 17.8 H [11.0-15.0 %]
PLT 526 H [150-450 10^9/L]
MPV 11.2 H [7.4-10.4 fL]
Neutrophils 1.27 L [2.2-6.3 10^9/L]
Lymphocytes 1.71 [1.3-4.0 10^9/L]
Monocytes 0.87 [0.2-1.0 10^9/L]
Eosinophils 0.08 [0-0.4 10^9/L]
% Hypo 31.7
White Cell Morphology MANUAL DIFF
Red Cell Morphology SLIGHT MACROCYTOSIS, POIKILOCYTES, +
Platelet Morphology NORMAL MORPHOLOGY,


Requested by: Van-der-velde-Ong, Geke (Specialist Nurse) Printed from: King's College Hospital
02-Feb-12 09:19 End of Report Page: 1 of 1

Life Saving Vaccines Reach the World’s Largest Refugee Camp

23 January 2012 – I am delighted to note that the Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunisation (GAVI) has announced plans to provide life saving rotavirus vaccines for children in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.
The Dadaab complex is the world’s largest refugee camp and plays host to approximately 500,000 inhabitants, a population centre roughly the same size as Manchester. The camp was established in 1991 as a temporary measure to shelter refugees fleeing violence in areas of Somalia but it has grown dramatically since and now ranks as the third largest population centre in Kenya, behind the capital Nairobi and the port of Mombasa.
The camp is estimated to grow at a rate of 1,300 new inhabitants every day and presents a number of healthcare challenges, with malnutrition, respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea particularly rife.
The announcement by GAVI is extremely welcome and has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Rotavirus is the single largest cause of diarrheal disease amongst children and infants, accounting for nearly half a million deaths worldwide. Alongside pneumonia this makes rotavirus one of the leading killers of children in the developing world.
The agreement between GAVI and the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation will see GAVI provide a regular supply of the rotavirus vaccine for use in the Dadaab camp. The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation had already planned to roll-out the rotavirus vaccine for the rest of the country in 2013 and this announcement will mean that children in the Dadaab camp will not be missed out.
In my capacity as Co-Chair of the APPG for Global Action Against Childhood Pneumonia I worked for many year to champion the roll-out of vaccines globally. Last year I met and liaised with representatives from DFID, GAVI and UNICEF to discuss the issue of vaccination in the Dadaab camp. I also discussed the matter with Baroness Northover, the Department for International Development Spokesperson in the Lords, who promised to look into the issue.
Until now the key focus of the APPG has been on pneumonia, however in 2012 we intend to expand our work to include rotavirus and diarrhoeal disease. Following visits to Kenya and Bangladesh group members were dismayed to see firsthand the terrible impact that rotavirus and diarrheal disease was having on child mortality rates in both countries.
I am extremely proud of the UK’s continued commitment to helping to fund life saving vaccines for children in the developing world. The key role that DFID have played in helping to bring about this new agreement with GAVI is further proof that the UK remains a leading force for change in international development policy.

I've not been keeping the blog up to date, but have entered several things on nTwitter, which must have a wider audience now that it has reached 300 followers. Just to catch up with Parliamentary activity, I spoke yesterday on David Alton's amendment to the Legal Aid etc Bill, dealing with the amounts that are to be deducted from damages awarded to victims of industrially related respiratory diseases. Mesothelioma, a painful cancer that kills patients on average within a year from diagnosis, accounts for the majority of these payments, and its unbelievable mean to take money from the terminally ill victims of this horrible disease. When they are told they will be fined in this way, many sufferers won't even bother to pursue their legitimate claims. See http://bit.ly/yE3g08

Today I voted against the Government on an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill dealing with payments to single mothers of disabled children who aren't in work. As I've said before, we shouldn't be making the poor and vulnerable contribute to paying off the debts left to us by Messrs Blair and Brown. There's plenty of scope for getting more from the rich, such as the mansion tax on houses worth more than £2 million or Supertax on incomes above £250k. It is said that if we tax the rich heavily they will emigrate to Geneva or Hong Kong, but I don't believe the top jobs couldn't be done just as well by the next rung down, for less money. But the risks could be managed by raising the % gradually over say ten years, so that individuals and companies would have time to adjust to the idea.

Medical

Blood test this morning, followed by an appointment with Dr L in Haematology Outpatients, not with Professor M as expected. We saw Dr L 50 minutes after the scheduled appointment time of 10.10, and this happens every time. There is something badly wrong with the way they schedule appointments.

Platelets were slightly up on laat time - 526 compared with 501 - but not enough to alter the dose of Hydroxycarbamide. WBC count was down (3.97) and there was no reading for Neutrophils, with which the PLT count has to be balanced. The risk is of thrombosis, but is not high as long as the platelets are under control. Longer term risks are bone marrow fibrosis and leukemia (< 1%), but Dr L is referring me to Dr Claire Harrison at St Thomas's, who is following up the survey of MPL mutations published in the journal Blood, and referred to in the previous post on this subject. This means she will have a better idea of what to expect, and in particular, how long I'm likely to be able to continue working normally. Dr L gives the impression, without actually saying so, that he thinks the original estimate of one year given to me off the cuff by Professor M last August was pessimistic, and at least Dr Harrison should be able to say what the mean experience was of the 24 patients with the MPL W515L mutation in the cohort she studied.

Somali pirates

Is it a good idea to offer space in Wormwood Scrubs for Somali pirates http://reut.rs/xXLrJi ? Or should they be tried, sentenced and imprisoned in the region, with international assistance? I'm only asking, but I do wonder whether Henry asked Ken Clarke?

This week I voted three times against our Government - twice on the benefits cap, and the third time, on charges to be imposed on a parent with care if she has to use the state to recover the contribution by the absent parent.

The cap if £500 a week, and that sound like a lot of money when many people in work aren't getting that much. But the limit applies everywhere, and in London a family with three or more children will be paying £350 a week in rent, leaving them with £150 to cover food and drink, clothing and shoes, transport, heat and light. Among those who objected to my interview on the World at One on this subject was an Australian banker, who disagreed when I told him that instead of making people on benefits contribute towards eliminating the deficit, I would like to see a 75% rate of income tax levied on income over £250k a year. He said this would drive the top earners abroad, to which my answer was that there would be many others ready to take their places at more reasonable salary levels. But yes, there ought to be international agreement on curbing top salaries if possible, to stop companies relocating in states wherte inequality is greatest, such as the UK and the US at present.


On the third vote, moved by the former Conservative Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the question was about the payment of fees to the Child Suppport Agency where the two parents in dispute are unable to reach agreement on the contributions each should make to the maintenance of their dependent children. Almost invariably in these cases its the mother who is left to look after the children while the father absconds and shirks his responsibilities, refusing to cooperate. Why on earth the mother should have to pay a fee to recover her rightful due was not explained satisfactorily by the Government. The Minister said it was to persuade the parties to cooperate, but its never the 'parent with care' who is obstructive.

Travellers and legal aid

The Legal Aid Bill prevents Gypsies and Travellers from getting legal aid in circumstances where they may lose their homes. With 2,000 Gypsies living in caravans on unauthorised sites from which the landlords are being given stronger powers to evict them. they will not qualify for legal advice on how to contest orders for their removal when they are trespassers, as so many of them are when it is made as difficult as possible for them to acquire land of their own, and there are no spare pitches for rent. But we did get assurances from the Minister who replied,Jim Wallace, that injunctions under S 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and orders under Sections 289 and 290 of that Act, which lead towards the loss of a Traveller's home, would still be subject to legal aid.

The amendments attracted a gratifying number of supporters and I think we have the ammunition to ask for discussions with Ministers before the Bill gets to its final stage of Third Reading.

At the end of his speech, Jim Wallace took credit for the recent Government annoiuncement that £60 million was being made available for local authorities and registered social landlords to provide Traveller sites for some 600 caravans. I happened to have telephoned five of the successful applicants for this money and was able to point out that none of them had even identified the necessary land, let alone applied for planning permission. And if by some miracle all of the planned schemes were implemented overnight, they would still cover only a third of the technically homelss Travellers.

Immigration regulations

All immigrants here for more than 6 months must now have biometric identity documents. We don't object to this per se, but with the UK Borders Agency incapable of dealing with its existing workload, to complete the rollout at the end of February is not good timing. http://bit.ly/wR9woo

There are more fundamental questions about whether the UKBA should continue to be a separate agency,rather than transferring its functions back to the Home Office where they belonged originally.

Blood test Jan 16

Platelets should be within normal range when I see Professor M on January 30 if they continue to reduce at the same rate as they have since the previous reading<


WBC 4.79 [4.00-11.00 10^9/L]
RBC 2.97 L [4.5-5.8 10^12/L]
Hb 10.4 L [13.0-16.5 g/dL]
PCV 0.310 L [0.400-0.540 L/L]
MCV 103.2 H [77.0-95.0 fL]
MCH 35.0 [20.0-36.0 pg]
MCHC 33.9 [32.0-37.0 g/dL]
RDW 18.4 H [11.0-15.0 %]
PLT 501 H [150-450 10^9/L]
MPV 10.7 H [7.4-10.4 fL]
Neutrophils 2.33 [2.2-6.3 10^9/L]
Lymphocytes 1.30 [1.3-4.0 10^9/L]
Monocytes 0.44 [0.2-1.0 10^9/L]
Eosinophils 0.06 [0-0.4 10^9/L]
Basophils 0.04 [0-0.1 10^9/L]
NRBC 6.1 H [< 1.0 /100 Wbc]
% Hypo 5.3
Requested

Yesterday in Parliament

In the morning, SubCommittee E which is coming towards the end of its inquiry into EU drugs strategy. At the end of the session in May I will be rotated off the SubCommittee, having done a four-year stint, and I shall be quite sorry.

Lunch with Shadia Syed, and a good chat about all things Bangladeshi.

At 16.00, meeting of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group: discussion of future programme, and funding.

18.00, a meeting chaired by Ilora Finlay to discuss 'compulsory sobriety', a system allowing courts to make orders that defendants convicted of repeat offences of violence or drink driving triggered by alcohol would be required to abstain totally for a fixed period of months, during which they would be regularly monitored, and any lapse would be punished by immediate 24-hours imprisonment. Schemes based on this principle had been highhly effective in Hawaii and South Dakota, andwere to be trialled in Strathclyde. The Mayor of London was keen to try it in the capital, but that would need primary legislation. The Government had rejected amendments for the purpose in the debates o the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, but the amendments had been retabled for the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, and I added my name to the sponsors.

After that I was in the chamber for the rest of the evening until 23.45 on the LASPO Bill, moving an amendment to restore legal aid for persons detained under the Immigration Act not only to challenge the detention itself, but the underlying reason for the detention, see http://bit.ly/A7xO5F. It would be impossible to separate the two, and I gave several examples of cases where the two were closely intertwined. PS January 21 The Independent complains that the LibDems are almost entirely silent on immigration, see today's leading article http://ind.pn/zlTsFH I can only say that in the Lords we do our best, and its disappointing to be ignored by the media.

Spoke also on amendments to restore legal aid for victims of trafficking, and dependants of refugees still in the countries of origin.

Home just after midnight and straight to bed!

With Lulu Todd & Salma, Jan 15

 

Somaliland discussion with Salma Sheik and Ahmed Kadleye

 

An appalling story from Bahrain

Badriya Ali is a 59 year old woman from the village of Sanabis. In April security forces raided her home to arrest her son, Ahmed Mushaima, who is 25 years old. They beat him severely in front of her, banging his head against the corner of an air conditioner repeatedly. Badriya screamed at them to stop beating her son, and an officer responded "shut up, we arrest women too". They then pulled her old sick husband from bed to arrest him, but he was so weak and collapsed to the ground, where they left him. Badriya fainted after watching her son being severely beaten. Before leaving, the officers wrote "long live Khalifa (the king's family name) " on the walls of her home.

Some of those officers were: Faisal Bakhsh, Khalid and Taher AlAlawi. They stole 4,500 BD (about £7,800), 3 phones, a laptop and Ahmed's wallet.

Since that raid, according to her daughter Zahra, Badriya went into deep depression.For a week she cried continuously, after which she fell completely silent. When Badriya's son was released she got a bit better, but a couple of weeks ago their village which is constantly under attacks by the security forces was invaded yetagain, and Badriya saw an old woman being chased by security forces in the street. Since that day she was terrified, and her family had to watch her constantly. She was afraid of any small sound, convinced they would come back for her children. She told her children that she couldn't take it anymore, and to let her go to the riot police so she can be killed.

Zahra says she was busy with her daughter for five minutes, only to find her mother had set herself on fire on the roof. She died of her burns today.

Traveller Pitch Funding

The Communities and Local Government Department has announced new funding of £47 million for new and refurbished Traveller sites, said to provide 617 new and 167 refurbished pitches over an unspecified period [http://bit.ly/zBjDjv]. Forty of the pitches classed a 'New', in Bolton and Bassetlaw, are actually refurbishments, so the actual total of new pitches is 577, compared with the shortfall as indicated by the number of caravans on unauthorised sites enumerated in the count undertaken for the CLG in July 2011. At the end of the day there would still be 3,420 families legally homeless [http://bit.ly/wLNbOU], and that's not taking into account any increase in the caravan-dwelling Traveller population over the years covered by this programme.

Yet at the same time as marginally reducing the number of homeless, the Government are making it harder for Travellers themselves to get planning permission, and giving councils draconian powers to evict them from the 4,000 pitches they occupy without planning permission, even where they own the land as at Dale Farm and now Meriden. Kicking these people off onto the roadside without having any plans to provide them with alternative sites is an inhuman policy, the result of which is certain to be that the severe deprivation suffered by the Gypsy and Traveller communities will persist down the generations. It is a recipe for particularly severe harm to the children, whose education will be interrupted, in many cases permanently, and whose health, already the worst of any ethnic minority in this country, will be vdamaged still further.

Calls to five of the providers listed as receiving the CLG grants revealed last week that in only one instance had a funded site yet been identified, and none had been the subjects of planning applications. The providers all acknowledged that it would be a long and controversial process getting to the stage where a single pitch had been added to the total.

Medical

Dr L tells me that the particular mutation I have is C-MPL W515L, not the K variant. The only recent paper on MPL mutations is from the journal Blood for July 1, 2008, see http://bit.ly/xV1wI3. This describes 44 patients with MPL mutations of all kinds, doubling the number reported to that date in peer-reviewed journals.

MPL, found at chromosome 1p34, encodes the thrombopoietin receptor that works in concert with thrombopoietin [http://bit.ly/xIsa7] for platelet production. Acquired MPL mutations eg, W515L and W515K are associated with severe anemia. [http://bit.ly/yN3G1w]

 

 

A bit sad to see them go but it was a great three weeks

 

New Year's Day at Flodden Road