Last week

Peccavi! I'm not keeping up with events on my blog, as Hugh reminded me this evening. Briefly:

October 13, fielded a Parliamentary question on Burma. Then, a meeting with two distinguished visitors from Bangladesh, and later, helped defet the Government on their infamous proposal to allow a person to be detained for up to 42 days before being charged.

October 14, attended and spoke at a meeting to protest about the American intention to hand over control of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where there are several thousand members of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, to the Iraqi authorities. Later, attended the celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Sikh faith (from the date when the holy book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, was made the permanent Guru, following the previous nine living Gurus. In the evening, spoke at a meeting on self-determination for Kashmir in the Moses Room.

October 15, lunch with Ursula; spoke at a meeting on West Papua, then at the launch of the Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease (having played an active role on the Committee's inquiry), then a meeting with Fernanda Borges of East Timor.

October 16, visit to the Vascular Laboratory at King's to have a Doppler scan of my aorta, which is still 4.75 cm, as it was a year ago. Then, a meeting with two Iranians, who were lobbying against the decision to deproscribe the PMOI as no longer satisfying the criteria to be treated as terrorists. They gave me some literature containing general allegations, but when I asked them to name one 'terrorist' offence committee by the PMOI since the assassination of the Governor of Evin Prison in 1999 or 2000 they were at a loss. In the early evening, attended the first showing of Shahriar Kabir's film on the 1971 war crimes in Bangladesh, hen allegedly three million people were murdered, and spoke as one of a panel discussing the film.

October 17, chaired a meeting of the Traveller Law Reform Unit.

October 18, to Hannover, attended a weekend meeting on Bangladesh there and spoke on the Sunday.