ARCHER'S PEERAGE PART 3

British Aid for the Kurds (BAFK as it became known), was the largest organisation in the country by the time we finished. It had sent nearly 1,000 tonnes of relief aid and no one else was anywhere near that. At the time, we had no idea of assessing the worth of what had been achieved. A guesstimate was put on it of £20-30million. I thought that was too much and that it was an overestimation.

I had a private meeting with Lynda Chalker who was then the Minister of the ODA (Overseas Development Administration)in London. She was very much decrying all of the things we had done and had done so throughout. I have letters from her that are so derogatory it is unbelievable. The lies they made up about our work and yet the Government actually broke into one of our warehouses and stole a warehouse full of goods. They then transported those goods and said they were from the British government! A Whitehall spokesman said we had given our permission. No we hadn't.

Lynda Chalker, later made a Baroness by her friend John Major, tried to intimidate me at the meeting. She walked into the boardroom with about a dozen chaps in their obligatory suits all carrying notepads and pens. They circled the boardroom table and sat facing us prepared to take notes. Silly woman. Not being immodest, but what was she doing? Having run 2 major national/international organisations that dealt with some of the top people in the country, did she really think a lot of young boys with notepads was going to worry me!! (See how cocky I had become. This was the same woman (me)who 3 months earlier was lying on her floor screaming in a haze of madness. Now you see why I say it must have been Divine Help that was given to me).

Anyway, I was at the meeting to get the truth out of her about why she, the Prime Minister and the government had hidden all of our work. We wanted to know what the point was. Why had they lied about the types of things we were sending? It was only later I would learn why. The meeting was a total waste of time. She had no intention of telling the truth. I never obliged her by begging or moaning. I sat and just stared at her and let her spout a load of rubbish at me. It was obvious the woman was an incredible liar. Question was why? What was the point?

Moving swiftly along, in the following year the Honour's list was published and Jeffrey Archer's name was on it. He was being awarded a peerage for his amazing achievement of raising £57 million for the Kurds!!!!!! Lynda Chalker for her part was later made a Baroness. For our American friends reading this, that meant she would now be addressed as Lady Chalker. Suddenly, all started to fall in place. We still didn't know why though. We knew he had taken glory for something he didn't do, but the full extent of the deception never became clear until the year 2000.

Good old Jeff went to prison. Hurrah I hear you shout. At least I hope I hear you do that! Whilst in there, the Kurdish people had started asking where the money was that he had alleged to have raised. Baroness Emma Nicholson had much to do with the Kurds and, I believe, still does. On their behalf she asked where it was and why hadn't anyone seen any of it. After all, this was 9 years later. An investigation was launched by the Red Cross. KPMG Forensic Accountants were to look into it to see where it had gone.

Archer was put into a higher category prison due to the seriousness of suggested allegations about the missing money. I knew he hadn't stolen any because I knew there hadn't been as much as he had claimed. I was probably the only one of 2-3 of us who knew that outside John Major's government. Suddenly, my telephone was red hot. Someone from Radio 4's Today programme telephoned me. He asked if I was the lady who had run BAFK. On confirmation, he sighed with relief and said that everyone in the media was looking for me. (We had moved house). Now he had found me he said everyone else would be in touch and to be prepared.

He said it was to do with Jeffrey Archer. Everywhere they looked to get details about his alleged fund raising, all they could find was my name. He asked why that was. I told him. Now the story gets even more peculiar. Remember, this is 9 years later and a different Government. No John Major to help out and hide him or their secrets. Maybe now the truth would be exposed. At last all of those poor people who did everything I asked of them would get the recognition they deserved. For years I felt guilty (and still do) that because they only had me as their head and not a celebrity, their work was unrecognised. If you knew the extent of what some of them did, you would know why I feel that way.

It was set up that Radio 4 would interview, Smelly old Mary Archer - whoops, sorry, I think the word used at the time was fragrant - oh well,same thing. No one said what the fragrance was, I just assumed married to him... Anyway, things were set up that Mon. Tues. and I think Wednesday interviews would be held and unbeknown to them all, after they had told their lies, I was to be produced on the Thursday to shock them all with the truth exposed. All of the interviews took place and the chap concerned rang me daily. He was to call me at a set time for my interview and then.....nothing.

It was happening again. A silence. The television interviews that were recorded never were shown, the newspaper articles went unpublished and the radio interviews too were silenced. Why? This is a different government - what's more a different party. Things were getting even more puzzling. Then I heard about a Panorama documentary due to be televised about Archer. THAT was to be a real eye opener.

Baroness Nicholson was now in touch with me regularly and we had many discussions about what was going on. I had by now been asked By Sir Nicholas Young CEO of the Red Cross in London to take part in the KPMG investigation. I was delighted and of course accepted. I could go armed with all of my letters and documents etc. and could have the truth told. I could show he didn't raise as much as he had claimed. What I didn't bank on was finding out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he hadn't actually raised a penny. My second shock was to be the estimated value of what we had achieved which far exceeded the amount I had at first thought too large!!

The Panorama interview and what I learned from it, the KPMG investigation and its report and the outcome of it all will be in the next and final part. So too will be the fact that the Metropolitan Police investigating the loans for peerages scandal were also informed of all of this.

Thanks once again for your time and PLEASE remember to get as many people as you can to read this and get them to pass on the link to it also. Justice I hope will be seen to be done and that phoney title removed forthwith. That's all I want now.

Much love, Lorraine.