I have added this to my posts because the link wasn't working that well and there are some who think what I have written is the work of a mad woman. Due to the fact I wrote at the start about my nerve problems, there are a few quite mean minded people who say my story is that of a fantasist. I have added this debate to show what I say is true.
Mr. Harry Barnes (Derbyshire, North-East) : My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South (Ms. Primarolo) referred to the lack of aid for the Kurds and gave some harrowing examples of the present position. However, without denying that, I want to talk about the generosity of the British people in supplying aid to the Kurds--a generosity which has not been matched by the Government on behalf of the British people and has not been adequately assisted by the Government in terms of the organisation and resources that the Government could have offered to the voluntary organisations. I am not referring to the Simple Truth concerts that were held seven weeks after the crisis emerged, although they were very praiseworthy. I want to stress the spontaneous and immediate response of the British people which occurred as soon as they witnessed the harrowing scenes of the Kurds going into the mountains in Turkey. In towns, neighbourhoods and villages up and down the land, without being asked, mobilised or organised by anyone, apart from one or two people who took initiatives in their own communities, people began to collect the kind of things that they felt the Kurds required. That happened from the beginning of April as soon as those scenes were broadcast on our television screens.
By 4 April, British Aid for the Kurds, one of the largest groups and voluntary organisations to assist the Kurds, had been established. It was established by Lorraine
Column 494
Goodrich from Devon, who had run an organisation called Parcels for the Gulf. She has received recognition for the work that she has done with Parcels for the Gulf. For example, she is included in a visit that is to take place to Buckingham Palace shortly in recognition of the role that she played. However, she cannot receive any mention from the Government or any recognition of the work that has been done by British Aid for the Kurds. When it came to supplying parcels to the troops, she was a heroine, but when it came to supplying aid to the Kurds, she was an embarrassment to the Government.
Parcels for the Gulf was a straightforward operation. Those who wanted to send materials out to troops carefully parcelled them up, organised them and contacted United Carriers, which said that it would handle the parcels free but in the event charged £2 for collecting up to 15 items, which were then transported. The Ministry of Defence had enough planes going out to the Gulf to be able to take the materials out there.
British Aid for the Kurds collected masses more material than Parcels for the Gulf, but it had massive logistical problems and needed assistance from the Government. It collected foodstuffs, blankets, medicines--which were supplied in response to lists drawn up by the Iranian embassy--and clothing. There is a myth around, which the Overseas Development Administration tends to perpetuate, that all the British Aid for the Kurds did was to collect clothing which turned out not to be needed. That is not the case. The clothing has been trans-shipped and is of value and in use, but the organisation has been involved in sending many other items. It collected tons and tons of material and then had to face the logistics of transporting it.
Transport was initially supplied free within Britain by the National Courier Service. Then Track 29, which works with British Rail and publicises its activities as a private haulage organisation linked with the railways, began to move the bulk of the material. According to Lorraine Goodrich, it was brilliant in the work and the organisation in which it was engaged.
However, it was not simply a matter of moving goods about Britain. As the goods could not be moved quickly, there were massive storage problems. People gave storage facilities. They included businesses, councils, individuals and in some cases, although not very often, the ODA. As it was taking time to ship goods, storage presented great problems. People who had made storage facilities available needed them back. They expected to hand over their facilities for only a week or so. The great problem became the movement overseas of the material that had been collected.
It was not until 24 April, 20 days after the organisation began its activities, that the first material was shifted out of Britain through Iran Air. Iran Air has a regular flight into Heathrow and a 747 was loaded full of material and sent out. Iran Air paid the landing fees for the Heathrow exercises. Although, after protests, the fee was lifted for special flights, the standard flights each Wednesday which have carried masses of material from British Aid for the Kurds have been subject to landing fees.
Only two ODA flights, or flights paid for by the ODA, have been provided for British Aid for the Kurds, but it was not recognised by the ODA that the material was from British Aid for the Kurds. A 707 flight went from Belfast. A 747 Iran Air flight from Heathrow was paid for by the
Column 495
ODA. That was held to be material collected by the Iranian embassy. In fact, it was British Aid for the Kurds material.
I tabled parliamentary questions in an effort to discover what the Government and the ODA thought had been done by British Aid for the Kurds, but I got virtually a nil return, as though British Aid for the Kurds did not exist. I received a letter from Lord Belstead on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office showing that the material sent from Belfast had been collected under the aegis of British Aid for the Kurds, but that fact does not seem to have been recognised by the ODA.
There have been eight other Iran Air flights. The significance of those is that Iran Air has large 747s, whereas the British Government tend to hire only the smaller capacity 707s when material needs to be sent to such areas. There have been two overland trips with material, one to Turkey in mid-April and one to Iran on 25 April, paid for by the ODA.
In all, 527 tonnes of material has been sent from this country. A further 200 tonnes is at Heathrow and elsewhere. It could readily be moved by Track 29. British Aid for the Kurds believes that if it had not had to put the brakes on because of the difficulty of shifting material it could, without any problem, have collected three times more material, and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South said, that material is urgently required in the area.
Next week, British Aid for the Kurds hopes to send out--through Iran, but for northern Iraq--a prefabricated building which will house a 40-bed hospital, with 40 lockers, 200 blankets, 400 sheets, 100 pillow slips, 100 towels and 100 sets of clothing, plus appropriate medicines that are urgently required. The organisation has had to engage in a special financial appeal--it had not previously been involved in collecting money-- and has £5,000 from the Welsh organisation Kurdish Relief (Wales), which acts under its umbrella. Judy Stubbs, of Cutthorpe in my constituency, a northern organiser for British Aid for the Kurds, wrote to the Prime Minister on 17 April offering the Government masses of materials free which they could ship to the Kurds. No answer has yet been received to that letter, although she was writing on behalf of that organisation. The scale of the operation is revealed in parliamentary written answers to me. Up to 15 May, Save the Children had sent out 207 tonnes of material, Oxfam 143 tonnes and the Red Cross 290 tonnes--all valuable material which had been specifically purchased for special purposes, and I am not decrying that contribution. British Aid for the Kurds had by then sent out 478 tonnes of material. That was done with little publicity. There was no national publicity--the media blackout set me wondering whether a D notice had been applied to the organisation's activities--and only a limited amount of regional coverage.
I have tabled five early-day motions and several written questions about British Aid for the Kurds. In addition to questioning Ministers when statements have been made, I made a short speech in an Opposition day debate on the work of the ODA. There has been no public recognition by the Government of the work of British Aid for the Kurds, despite links with the ODA, to which I shall come.
Column 496
The ODA has acted in the only way it can act, given the way it is established and the finances available to it, and that is in an ad hoc and limited fashion. That is no fault of the dedicated staff of the ODA disaster unit. Under pressure from the Labour party, the number of staff has risen from four at the start of the disaster to six. When the Bangladesh crisis arose the number rose to nine, and the latest figure of which I am aware is 12.
The Overseas Development Administration has a hangar containing collections of material to be sent to disaster areas. When disasters such as earthquakes occur, it sends out a couple of 707s and purchases food in the nearest local market. That is its usual contribution to disasters, but it has had on its hands three massive disasters for which it has special responsibility. Although the ODA has been trying to handle the problems by increasing its staff, it finds that the problems are beyond it because it is seriously underfunded and there is a lack of political will at Cabinet level to assist it. The ODA even has to pay the Ministry of Defence to take materials to Kurdish areas in the middle east.
The Government are terrified to be seen to have provided insufficient aid. On 9 May, I asked the Minister for Overseas Development for a meeting with British Aid for the Kurds but I have not yet received a reply to my letter. It took until 5 April for the first of the two usual 707 disaster relief flights to leave for Turkey. Not until 8 April did the first 707 fly out to Iran. By 27 April, only four 707s, taking out 35 tonnes each, had flown to Iran. It appears that nothing has ever been sent to Syria, although some 100,000 refugees found their way into that country.
The Prime Minister's initial response to the crisis was his famous remark that he did not recall anyone asking the Kurds to rebel. He then had to react against that statement and suggested a safe havens policy. It may be as well that he did, or the safe havens policy might not have emerged so quickly. The initial safe havens policy did not provide sufficient water, food, medical supplies and other necessities required by the Kurds. We were defending the Kurds, who were then dying from lack of food, supplies and cover in the most abysmal circumstances--in massive contrast with the facilities and organisation provided for the Gulf war, which destabilised Iraq and led to the problems.
When I wrote to the Prime Minister about those problems, I claimed that the Government's response was "tawdry". I do not know whether it was in response to that comment, but he then wrote to the United Nations claiming that its response was "tardy". The difference is that "tawdry" means showy, but worthless, which is exactly the Government's position, while "tardy" means slow to act, move or happen. Those are the definitions given in the Oxford reference dictionary.
The Government's response to the plight of the Kurds has been inadequate. They have tried to pretend that they have done something dramatic, but they have not met the basic humanitarian needs of the Kurds--and when people have moved to meet the needs, the Government have been embarrassed and have attempted to downgrade those actions. It is not only the Government who have failed to make the necessary statements. To their great discredit, the mass media of this country have failed to pick up the fact that the British public were involved in these humanitarian acts. The British public are ready to respond to disasters
Column 497
and they expect the Government to act automatically on their behalf and to help the organisations seeking to assist the Kurds and others involved in disasters.
Lorraine Goodrich's letter concludes :
"We have now also started an account for Africa after requests to do so from many of our contacts throughout the Country. We shall be taking the ODA's advice and United Nations' on what they would like done with the money as and when the time arises."
This time, cash is to be collected to try to move matters along because it was found impossible merely to collect materials and goods and to rely on the Government then to move those goods.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Sunday, 31 May 2009
NEW START
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I like that saying as it can mean so much. I have cleared MR Archer out of my life by writing that diatribe you all had to put up with and I apologise for it. I do feel better for it though. Then this morning, I cleared out a lot of dead wood amongst my followers. Why do so many people on Twitter want hundreds and thousands of followers? I clear them once a week as I like REAL people to talk to and follow.
We meet some really super people through Twitter don't we. Those of you who are reading this have so much to offer to others. You are the ones I find very interesting to hear about. I love reading your tweets and blogs where appropriate. Good works, funny, caring, interesting and just good old fashioned nice(My English teacher told me to never use that word -sorry Mrs Nester) people. I love people like you. You make my day more pleasant and up lifted, so thank you all. Keep those tweets coming and the e-mails.
I'm not doing a real entry today, but this is just to let you know we are back to normal service now. I thought I would let you have something not so serious to read this time to lighten matters up a bit. I'm going to be horrid now. I wrote a poem years ago about a lot of the people in this town. None of them will read it as I shouldn't think they know what a computer is let alone how to use one. When I got married I ended up mixing with them and it was horrendous. they didn't have a brain cell between them and I started getting like them !!! Anyway, it's a bit bitchy but is so typical of the plastic people of today. Badly written as I'm not a writer or a poet, but thought you may like it.
THE CLONES
With painted nails and face full of goo
They all meet for coffee and luncheon too.
With furs and diamonds and bleached blond hair
They parade around in designer wear.
Squeezed in clothes a size too small
And wearing high heels to make them feel tall
They'll raise some money by drinking champagne
Though nobody knows who's ever gained.
They've never cleaned and can rarely cook
But are very adept at maintaining their looks.
They go to their gyms and hairdressers too
And look down their noses at me and you.
They all speak at once - though there's nothing to say
As they've not used their brains and they've wasted away.
They race around town in their flashy cars
And try to look busy but never go far.
A divorce here and there what does it matter
For dahling that's made my balances fatter.
Not a penny was earned in an honest way
But by using men and making them pay.
About their ages they'll always lie,
And will never change till the day they die
For the bodies God gave them are all made of plastic
Like the money they spend and it's all very drastic.
But at least we can watch them and laugh with glee
For we have a REAL life - you and me.
I hope you enjoyed that. The funniest part of it is - just after I had finished writing it my doorbell rang. I put the book down (open) with the pen on top of it and went to answer the door. It was a woman who I knew but didn't really mix with anymore. Don't get me wrong, she's a lovely person just, well, empty. I don't know how else to describe her. I don't want to be horrible but there isn't anything else I can say about her apart from the fact shes, well, nice.
Anyway, she came in and I offered her coffee as one does and went to make it. On my return to the room I saw she was holding the book and had read the poem. Oh s***, thought I. Well, I had to laugh because she looked at me and asked if it was about her!!! Well, if the cap fits. She was chuffed to bits by the thought of it. Doesn't that say it all.
We meet some really super people through Twitter don't we. Those of you who are reading this have so much to offer to others. You are the ones I find very interesting to hear about. I love reading your tweets and blogs where appropriate. Good works, funny, caring, interesting and just good old fashioned nice(My English teacher told me to never use that word -sorry Mrs Nester) people. I love people like you. You make my day more pleasant and up lifted, so thank you all. Keep those tweets coming and the e-mails.
I'm not doing a real entry today, but this is just to let you know we are back to normal service now. I thought I would let you have something not so serious to read this time to lighten matters up a bit. I'm going to be horrid now. I wrote a poem years ago about a lot of the people in this town. None of them will read it as I shouldn't think they know what a computer is let alone how to use one. When I got married I ended up mixing with them and it was horrendous. they didn't have a brain cell between them and I started getting like them !!! Anyway, it's a bit bitchy but is so typical of the plastic people of today. Badly written as I'm not a writer or a poet, but thought you may like it.
THE CLONES
With painted nails and face full of goo
They all meet for coffee and luncheon too.
With furs and diamonds and bleached blond hair
They parade around in designer wear.
Squeezed in clothes a size too small
And wearing high heels to make them feel tall
They'll raise some money by drinking champagne
Though nobody knows who's ever gained.
They've never cleaned and can rarely cook
But are very adept at maintaining their looks.
They go to their gyms and hairdressers too
And look down their noses at me and you.
They all speak at once - though there's nothing to say
As they've not used their brains and they've wasted away.
They race around town in their flashy cars
And try to look busy but never go far.
A divorce here and there what does it matter
For dahling that's made my balances fatter.
Not a penny was earned in an honest way
But by using men and making them pay.
About their ages they'll always lie,
And will never change till the day they die
For the bodies God gave them are all made of plastic
Like the money they spend and it's all very drastic.
But at least we can watch them and laugh with glee
For we have a REAL life - you and me.
I hope you enjoyed that. The funniest part of it is - just after I had finished writing it my doorbell rang. I put the book down (open) with the pen on top of it and went to answer the door. It was a woman who I knew but didn't really mix with anymore. Don't get me wrong, she's a lovely person just, well, empty. I don't know how else to describe her. I don't want to be horrible but there isn't anything else I can say about her apart from the fact shes, well, nice.
Anyway, she came in and I offered her coffee as one does and went to make it. On my return to the room I saw she was holding the book and had read the poem. Oh s***, thought I. Well, I had to laugh because she looked at me and asked if it was about her!!! Well, if the cap fits. She was chuffed to bits by the thought of it. Doesn't that say it all.
Friday, 29 May 2009
ARCHER'S PEERAGE (2nd of 2 parts) CONCLUSION
Surprise, surprise. I received the full report from the KPMG at the end of their investigation. Listed on it were all of the people who took part in it without exception. The name of their group or organisation and what they had done or raised. Well, what do you know, there was no mention at all of BAFK. Not a dickie bird. Now why, I wonder, would that be. Because it was to be reported on by the media wasn't it. How could they mention us. Questions would be asked. It would show that out of everyone, we were by far the largest relief aid organisation for the Kurds in the country. No, once again, we were treated as though we didn't exist.
Everything had slotted into place. Throughout our work, the people who ran the show in their own areas were constantly telephoning me asking why the media kept reporting that the British public were doing nothing. They KNEW we were. They rang me daily for updates! I was, and still am, so frustrated. How dare that b***** government be corrupt enough to hide the enormous work that the people of Britain did? These were the people who had elected them into power in the first place and they were treated as nothing's just so that a smug, little man with very deep pockets and whose whole life has been about "him" could stamp his feet throw out his dummy and demand a peerage. Is it little wonder that we now have so little disregard for the so called Honour's list anymore.
When the cash for peerages investigation was launched I had dealings with that team also. Great interest was taken and then eventually after 2 years nothing. There is something very strange about this whole affair. You may wonder why I am still hounding that man after so many years. It is because I let down the people who did that work. It is my fault that everything they did was unrecognised. None of them wanted rewards, titles or glory. All they wanted was for people to stop pretending they weren't doing anything. They all wanted to know why Archer was deemed so important to John Major that he had to go to such lengths to cover up their work and pretend he was the hero.
Do you know what scares me most about this? If a Prime Minister and his government on his orders can go to such lengths to lie and cover up something such as this, what the heck are they capable of doing about something serious. Makes one shudder doesn't it?
There is so very much more I could tell you, but the whole object of this was to get the story out into the general public.Let them know the truth about his peerage. When it was proved he raised not a penny, why was he not stripped of the title? They tried to keep this quiet and now, thanks to Blogger, Twitter, Digital Spy and others, I have had a chance to let those of you who are interested know the truth. Thank you to them.
This is one way they couldn't stop me. Hopefully, word will now spread by all of you who are as disgusted as I am. I leave it to you to decide if you want this story to spread. I have done what I have wanted to for years. I have managed, at last, to let some of the country know what a wonderful and truly outstanding thing we British did. Only a handful of the group know the extent of our achievement. Even those involved have been unaware for all of these years what they did. To all of you I thank you for your unstinting generosity and time. I know many of you struggled yourselves in your lives for many reasons and yet still gave of yourselves in the most unselfish and generous way.
I apologise unreservedly to each and every one of those good and generous people for not managing to have their work recognised. I tried, I really tried and for some of you now it is too late to see I have managed in a very small way to do it at last. I am sorry that all you had at the helm was me. If you had a celebrity heading it this would not have happened to you. I have to accept now that Jeffrey Archer (who will always be MR Archer to me) is being very protected by the powers that be for some strange reason. There must be more to it than friendship don't you think? At least we all know what we did. We know that we managed to maybe save a lot of lives and that, for us, is what it was all about. More to the point, we can stand in front of God (or whatever your belief is) and not be ashamed.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. For those of you who have supported my story I thank you. I truly don't mind any comments. I am made of pretty tough stuff theses days, but please, don't ever accuse me again of wanting glory. There is only one person who has done that in this whole story and we know who he is don't we. This for me is the end. I know I have been a pain in that man's side for all of these years and now I have done what I wanted to do, and what they wanted to prevent, I got the word out there. The rest is up to you. Many thanks,
God Bless,
Lorraine Goodrich
DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE AN ORDINARY HOUSEWIFE AGAIN MR ARCHER
Everything had slotted into place. Throughout our work, the people who ran the show in their own areas were constantly telephoning me asking why the media kept reporting that the British public were doing nothing. They KNEW we were. They rang me daily for updates! I was, and still am, so frustrated. How dare that b***** government be corrupt enough to hide the enormous work that the people of Britain did? These were the people who had elected them into power in the first place and they were treated as nothing's just so that a smug, little man with very deep pockets and whose whole life has been about "him" could stamp his feet throw out his dummy and demand a peerage. Is it little wonder that we now have so little disregard for the so called Honour's list anymore.
When the cash for peerages investigation was launched I had dealings with that team also. Great interest was taken and then eventually after 2 years nothing. There is something very strange about this whole affair. You may wonder why I am still hounding that man after so many years. It is because I let down the people who did that work. It is my fault that everything they did was unrecognised. None of them wanted rewards, titles or glory. All they wanted was for people to stop pretending they weren't doing anything. They all wanted to know why Archer was deemed so important to John Major that he had to go to such lengths to cover up their work and pretend he was the hero.
Do you know what scares me most about this? If a Prime Minister and his government on his orders can go to such lengths to lie and cover up something such as this, what the heck are they capable of doing about something serious. Makes one shudder doesn't it?
There is so very much more I could tell you, but the whole object of this was to get the story out into the general public.Let them know the truth about his peerage. When it was proved he raised not a penny, why was he not stripped of the title? They tried to keep this quiet and now, thanks to Blogger, Twitter, Digital Spy and others, I have had a chance to let those of you who are interested know the truth. Thank you to them.
This is one way they couldn't stop me. Hopefully, word will now spread by all of you who are as disgusted as I am. I leave it to you to decide if you want this story to spread. I have done what I have wanted to for years. I have managed, at last, to let some of the country know what a wonderful and truly outstanding thing we British did. Only a handful of the group know the extent of our achievement. Even those involved have been unaware for all of these years what they did. To all of you I thank you for your unstinting generosity and time. I know many of you struggled yourselves in your lives for many reasons and yet still gave of yourselves in the most unselfish and generous way.
I apologise unreservedly to each and every one of those good and generous people for not managing to have their work recognised. I tried, I really tried and for some of you now it is too late to see I have managed in a very small way to do it at last. I am sorry that all you had at the helm was me. If you had a celebrity heading it this would not have happened to you. I have to accept now that Jeffrey Archer (who will always be MR Archer to me) is being very protected by the powers that be for some strange reason. There must be more to it than friendship don't you think? At least we all know what we did. We know that we managed to maybe save a lot of lives and that, for us, is what it was all about. More to the point, we can stand in front of God (or whatever your belief is) and not be ashamed.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. For those of you who have supported my story I thank you. I truly don't mind any comments. I am made of pretty tough stuff theses days, but please, don't ever accuse me again of wanting glory. There is only one person who has done that in this whole story and we know who he is don't we. This for me is the end. I know I have been a pain in that man's side for all of these years and now I have done what I wanted to do, and what they wanted to prevent, I got the word out there. The rest is up to you. Many thanks,
God Bless,
Lorraine Goodrich
DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE AN ORDINARY HOUSEWIFE AGAIN MR ARCHER
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
