ARCHER'S PEERAGE PART 2

You'll have no doubt noticed that the link I gave you isn't working. It was when I first did it and did for a while afterwards. Suddenly it stopped. I wonder why. Sounds very dramatic I know, but would you have believed anyone if you had been told practically all MP's in our country were crooked as hell? No, quite. I shall carry on with the story and you can come to your own conclusions at the end. Suffice to say, all I tell you can be checked out in Hansard. The Parliamentary records of all debates etc. in the House of Commons.

I told you about Parcels for the Gulf and now I shall come to the follow up. Due to the Network of helpers, organisers in various counties and storage facilities the group had, I decided to put it to good use. We had stopped the Gulf parcels due to the ceasefire and so I decided to set up an Organisation Nationally to help the Kurdish people. This was done on 4th April 1991. Archer says he became aware (in his own words) of the plight of the Kurds for the first time on 25th April after celebrating his birthday with his family. Where on earth had he been before then. It was all that was on the news.

This time my work was much harder as people from before didn't all want to help with this as they were exhausted from the last thing we had done. I then had to find more district organisers, storage facilities, collection points for donations etc. Logistical nightmare. I needed new transport for long and short haul collection/delivery and worst of all I now had no aeroplanes to fly anything out! Cut a long story relatively short again. I got all I needed including 747's free of charge for our use.

I had daily contact with UNHCR and British Foreign Office in order to check what was needed and where. In all we raised approximately £200 million of relief aid. Yes, Two Hundred Million pounds worth. This is what the British public did and the government hid. We got no recognition for £200million, he got a peerage for £57 million that's now been proved wan't raised at all by him. I also started the ball rolling for a concert. My son was at school with Peter Gabriel's 2 daughters. He was the founder member of the group Genesis if you remember. He was known for doing charity concerts and so I telephoned his ex wife who gave me his number. I spoke with Annie Parsons ( his PA). After a couple of conversations, Peter agreed to do the concert, he got Sting on board and they gave me Harvey Goldsmith's number and told me to contact him. He was and is THE man to arrange these concerts.

At this point I got the British Red Cross on board. I didn't mind handling relief aid, but as I wasn't a registered charity had no intention of handling any money if I could help it. The Red Cross (Iranian Red Crescent) were distributing our goods when they arrived at Tehran and so who better to handle the money side of it. In all this time, by now 4 weeks in which our first plane had left filled with all manner of things, there was NO national publicity at all. Odd mentions would be made and announced that the story would be on News at Ten etc. you would tune in and - nothing!

I would get telephone calls from their news desks just before going live on air asking what planes I had going out that day and what was on them. They would then go on air and ask why the British who were usually so good were doing nothing. I was horrified. They all knew exactly what we were doing and just didn't report it. Something was going on and none of us knew what. We even sent a pre fabricated building with 40 hospital beds, lockers and bedding with a portable operating table, 50 tons of medical equipment and a team of doctors, surgeon and nurses out. All BEFORE good old Jeff came on the scene.

One day, suddenly, none of my calls to Harvey Goldsmith were being taken. The same happened with the British Red Cross. Remember, these were the ones with the concert? A couple of days later things started to drop into place. I had a telephone call from a leading journalist at the Telegraph Newspaper. She asked me what Jeffrey Archer had to do with my concert. I replied that he had nothing to do with anything least of all the concert. She then told me that all of them now knew why none of our work had been allowed to be talked of or publicised. They ALL, every single person in the media who mattered, had received a press release that morning saying that Jeffrey Archer had launched an appeal to help the Kurds and that he was arranging a concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From then on, our work continued behind the scenes as usual and he went on T.V. saying how wonderful he was and saying how much money he had flooding in. Still our work went unmentioned. I'm talking about the whole of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales here. Not some small group. Imagine how much covering up that took. I can't start to tell you all that was going on. Suffice to say, I collapsed after it was all over and was very ill with blood pressure for a year before they could regulate it properly. I'm still on high medication for it daily now 17 years later. My job as the main organiser was hard enough, but without any publicity it was a logistical nightmare. My telephone bills were a regular £1,800 with no help from anywhere. I also had phones set up in our warehouse at Heathrow airport.

Anyway, all was beginning to fall into place. Archer was taking credit for an appeal he didn't launch. He was also taking credit for a concert he didn't start. What's more, he was being very publicly supported by the government and John Major in particular. The real irony is the name he changed the concert to - Simple Truth !!

That's all for now, but you now know what's going on. I shall conclude maybe tomorrow with what happened next. Long winded isn't it? I hope you are beginning to see why I'm so annoyed and determined to get the truth out. There was a man called, Duncan Edwards who ran our warehouse at Heathrow airport. He was magnificent in the work he did and never got credit. Many people I could mention who did real hard work over and above the normal call of things and they were never recognised for any of it because Archer wanted it for himself when he had done NOTHING. We have since heard that that is what he has always done. Whether that's true or not I don't know. I do, however, know about this. Ah well, reliving this is making me hot in the cheeks and under the collar. Off for a cup of tea.

If you want to check this out, the link I posted was for a section taken from a Debate in Hansard. Look up Lorraine Goodrich Parcels on Google U.K and you MAY see a headline. Hansard June 6th 1991. I think that's the one I tried to show you. One of many.
I really hope you're not bored by this, but I want as many to know as possible. Why should the Government get away with hiding what the British people did in order to give a "mate" of theirs glory. It's disgusting. Please get all your friends to read this and spread the word to everyone they know. This way maybe we can get the truth out at how corrupt the government was and is. I do not want my name singled out. When one talks of Red Cross, Oxfam etc. they do not mention one individual, they mention the group name. That is what I want. More than that, I would be satisfied with that ghastly smug man being stripped of the title he didn't earn. He and people like him are what is making our country look stupid.

The government has hidden this truth for 17 years. Strangely, subsequent governments have and are doing the same, WHY? What is it about Archer that they keep hiding the truth from coming out. Why do they keep protecting him no matter what he does. When he went to prison in 2000 an investigation was launched into where the money he claimed to have raised was. That, is what I am going to talk to you of next. I am sick and tired of things like this being hidden because the ordinary man on the street is not given his voice. By spreading the word this way it can be talked of and word can spread all over the country. I want to show the Government that we will not be hidden away as though we were not important. You can help with this if you will.
Thanks for your understanding. Spread the word!!

Lorraine.