KIRF fundraising event

At the dinner for Kashmir International Relief Fund, Walthamstow Town Hall, September 20. Over £50,000 was raised in cash and promises for the KIRF's health, education, water and other humanitarian projects.

With Bridy Purcell and Sophie Vale. Bridy interviewed me for an article she's writing for the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain

 

 

Sarafkandi commemoration

 

Packed meeting to commemorate the life of Dr Sadegh Sarafkandi, Leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, assassinated with his comrades by agents of the Iranian régime on September 17, 1992 at the Mykonos restaurant, Berlin. The principal speaker was Abdallah Hassanzadeh, current Leader of the KDPI. Other main speakers were Roya Hakakian, writer and journalist; Parviz Dastmalchi, leading Iranian intellectual and writer, survivor of the Mykonos massacre; Jeremy Corbyn MP, vice-chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group; Dr Alireza Nourizadeh, Iranian scholar and contemporary historian, and Golaleh Shrafkandi, member of the leading committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The meeting was organised by Mouloud Swara, UK Representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Bhante, presiding over the ceremony

Close of the ceremony, after the circumambulation. We process three times round the Buddha Grove, concentrating successively on the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha

 

Springhill Anniversary

At the 21st annual celebration of the Buddha Grove at Springhill Prison. This was probably the largest attendance we have ever had, with no less than 15 monks, and 400 people sitting down to a splendid meal provided by the Thai community in the prison canteen. This was the first and most splendid Buddha Grove of the many that now grace the prison system, built by the prisoners themselves under the leadership of the inimitable Sam Cutler, then doing nine years. The governor Tim Newall had the imagination to encourage the project and his successors have welcomed many distinguished guests to the annual commemorations such as the late prisons Minister Lord Williams of Mostyn and the then Director of the Prison Service Martin Narey. It is also an opportunity of celebrating the valuable work of the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy and its Spiritual Director, the Ven Khemadhammo Mahathera (Chao Khun Bhavanaviteht) OBE

Blood test September 10

Main blood parameters from September 10 test. Platelets are within normal range and so are neutrophils. Haemoglobin is low as usual and so are White Blood Cells, but these are not a worry.

Bahrain

At yesterday's Parliamentary Human Rights Group/Index on Censorship seminar on Bahrain with Maryam al-Khawaja, foreign affairs representative of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

With Sue Shutter

My turn

Dilbagh Chana speaks

Chris Rennard speaks

 

With our kind hosts Arvind and Mrs Patel

 

Sarah Teather MP and Lord (Chris) Rennard

Comparing notes with Dilbagh Chana

Fiona Mactaggart MP, first speaker at the Wembley dinner in my honour organised by old friend Arvind Patel , September 9, 2012

At the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, September 9, 2012

Walkabout at the Ahmadiyya Muslim National Convention, with Nasser Butt

Rafiq Hayat, the National Amir, greets me at the end of my speech.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim National  Convention September 8, 2012. There were 25,000 people there

Residents tell their story

No electricity, no running water, no sanitation, rats everywhere. No visits from the council, no health visitors, no midwives. There are 6 pregnant women on the site, many small children, elderly and disabled. Its really surprising - and deplorable - that the media have lost interest in the basic needs of the residents.

Dale Farm visit Friday September 7

Devastated site as it is now after the evictions. No doubt the Council thought residents would move elsewhare, but there's no other place they could lawfully settle. Plus, they have ties here, such as children at the local primary school or ongoing medical treatment at the local health centres and hospitals. Others stay to help relatives and friends who don't have transport. To take a shower, for instance, means a three mile journey each way.

Haematology

Today's results:

Hb                          10.3 g/dL       [13.0-16.5]
WBC                        4.2 10^9/L   [4.0-11.0]
Neutrophils               2.2 10^9/L    [2.2-6.3]
Platelets                384     10^9/L   [150-450]

So the platelets are well inside the normal range and the Hydroxycarbamide is to continue as at present, with the next test in 6 weeks' time. Dr L wasn't prepared to say anything about my likely span of useful existence and I think there is a collective reluctance to make even rough predictions about patients with the W515L mutation, because the records don't cover enough of them to achieve statistical validity.

Ping-pong

Today JW and I had the first game of ping-pong we've played since August 7, 2009, when the cumulative score was 123-118 in his favour. He set off for Grenoble a month later, and in October I broke my leg so we just hadn't had much of an opportunity, what with him being away, and then my EVAR operation in 2010, and this year non-stop downpours. Anyway, it was the best day of the year today, and I won the game 21-16!

Maurice Lubbock Trustees, at Balliol

 

At the UKLGIG reception July 6, 2012

With Anwar El-Sadat August 18, 2012

 

Haematology

Blood values:

HB              10.5
WBC            3.5
Platelets     423

No value for neutrophils, but consultant said that with the other figures OK, it wasn't a matter of concern.

I pressed him on the expectation of useful life and he said 2-3 years from diagnosis, ie 1-2 years from now.

After that myelofibrosis develops into full-blown leukemia, requiring frequent transfusions and daily hospital visits. But susceptibility to infections increases, so it may not be leukemia itself that delivers the coup de grace. Sounds as though the quality of life would be a bit sub-standard, but until then I should be more or less functional if the atherosclerosis doesn't get any worse.

PM: xolendronic acid infusion, for osteoporosis. This was the third, at yearly intervals, since I had my leg fracture, so there will be now be a bone scan to see if the infusions have had any effect.

Molly Lepel, my 6G Grandmother

MOLLY LEPEL, LADY HERVEY by Knapton, in the Bedroom at Ickworth, Suffolk.
©National Trust Images/Christopher Hurst www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Lords reform

With the demise of Lords reform, caused by the unholy combination of rightwing Tory back-benchers and the Labour Party's opposition to any reasonable timetable motion, we are stuck with an undemocratic second chamber composed of an ever-increasing number of Party appointees, bishops,hereditary peers and 'cross-benchers' whose voting performance is as arbitrary as the method of their appointment.

There are 815 peers at the moment, an impossibly large number made barely tolerable by a large fraction of the membership being absent most of the time, with an average daily attendance of 429.

There is no upper limit on the size of the House, but the unwritten rule is that the Government should have a larger number of Members than the principal opposition Party. At the moment the Coalition has a majority over Labour of 76. If there was an election tomorrow and Labour won, then to give them a 76 majority over the Tories would require the appointment of 62 new Labour peers. But that doesn't take into account the creation of peers by the outgoing Government in the Dissolution Honours.  Labour elevated 13 peers last time, so if the same happens next time in reverse, that would mean an additional 26 to add to the 62. That means the total would rise to over 900.

In spite of Nick Clegg's dismissal of the Steel Bill, it could be extended to get rid of the hereditary by-elections; to limit the term of appointments to 15 years (say), and to provide for a retirement age.But these improvements would require Tory approval, not a probable scenarion

As David Steel rightly points out, Lords reform isn't an issue that strikes a chord on the doorstep. But the Tories' failure to honour coalition 'contract' means that Liberal Democrats are let off from their side of the bargain. LibDems should now be free to insist that instead of making the disadvantaged pay to get us out of the financial crisis bequeathed to us by Labour, we should get the money from the rich.