Stockport Council News

Fri 16/03/2012 21:55

Dear Ms Oliver,

Thank you for your email about the HSC Bill.  

My subjects are Foreign Affairs and human rights in particular – I was speaking in the House on the Middle East this afternoon –  immigration and asylum, prisons, the EU’s home affairs policies, alcohol harm, and certain aspects of religious policy. I haven’t taken part in the long and detailed debates on the Health etc Bill; however, I am satisfied that with the numerous amendments to the Bill that we have achieved, see attached summary, it is now fit for purpose. Our peers who are involved in the Bill, from Shirley Williams downwards, have worked their socks off to get this far, and it is disappointing to see that our critics simply ignore what has been accomplished, and continue to behave as if the text was the same as it came forth originally over a year ago.

In my view it would mean chaos and confusion if the Bill were to be scrapped at this eleventh hour, and I will be voting against Dr Owen’s motion on Monday. The only responsible approach now is to make the changes work, and I hope that even the most sceptical will now get down to that task, in the interests of patients. Risk registers have never been published, because officials ned to feel safe in thinking the unthinkable in preparing advice on policy, and if the actual and theoretical risks were published, they would be subject to alarmist misrepresentation based on worst case scenarios. The Government are probably going to appeal against the tribunal’s decision, when they know what are the reasons for their apparently inconsistent rulings on the transition risk register and the strategic risk register respectively

By the way, I declare an interest, having been a regular customer of the NHS  over the last 18 years: Ischaemic heart disease – CABG December 1995; Peripheral vascular disease – angioplasty  right leg September 1997, left leg October 1998; Barrett’s oesophagus and gastritis 2001; Colon injury from RTA – colostomy October 2001; Colostomy reversed March 2002; MALT lymphoma April 2006; Osteopenia – fracture left hip October 2009; EVAR repair July 2010, and now, MPD/MDS C-MPL 515L diagnosis August 2011. The blood cancer is incurable, so I don’t expect to last for much longer. My immune system is damaged, but it still works well against threats to work against the Liberal Democrats

Funnily enough, the many health professionals I meet as a patient seem relaxed about the Bill. As one would expect, those who write letters and emails may not be entirely representative. I also notice that the letters and emails fall into certain patters, which indicate that many of them aren’t the result of independent thinking by the writers. Needless to say, I’m not saying that applies to you.

Regards,

Eric Avebury

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 6:11 PM, <Sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury, I work in the NHS. We don’t mind change, we have it forced on us all the time, but what your coalition is up is a scandal for which you have no mandate from the electorate. I sincerely hope your party is destroyed in forthcoming elections and I will do my utmost to make sure it is. Yours sincerely, Sheila Oliver Sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com This message has been sent via a TUC co-ordinated campaign. Campaign e-mail: contact@goingtowork.org.uk

—

Eric Avebury

ericavebury@gmail.com
ericavebury.blogspot.com

www.my-silbury.co.uk

Follow me on Twitter @EricAvebury



House of Lords, Tel 020-7219 3438
London SW1A 0AA

Parts of the NHS are already privatised. 

The FT you work for already takes 2-3% private patients if its typical, and any increase has to be agreed by the Governors, overseen by Monitor.

I have no idea whether you will continue to do voluntary work in your hospital after the Bill becomes law, but if not, it seems rather hard to take your political resentment out on patients.

Please read Shirley Williams’ article in today’s Guardian.

The passage of the Bill is inevitable, so I suggest to you and other critics that you help to make it work for the benefit of the patients. And please, don’t threaten me with reprisals against the Liberal Democrats.I’m fairly sure the LibDems will pay a penalty for going into coalition with the Tories at the next general election, but absolutely certain that we did the right thing, to rescue the nation from the appalling economic crisis left by Blair and Brown.. But I’m unlikely to be around then – on Monday I’m seeing the oncologist who is following up a cohort of 24 patients diagnosed in May 2008 with the variant of MDS/MPL that includes the mutation C-MPL W515L. So I hope you can imagine that I don’t look at these matters from an electoral perspective.

Regards,

Eric

On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 10:14 AM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

When my young son died, my daughter, then aged 14, became seriously ill with grief, as they were incredibly close.  I had a complicated job with the German Diplomatic Service.  In order to give my daughter the time and attention she needed, I took a job as a typist at the local hospital – no pressure involved.  I love my job.

I often act as interpreter at the hospital for German patients (you would be surprised at the number of elderly German parents who come to live in England with their offspring and speak little English) and translate medical reports from abroad.  I don’t charge the hospital extra for this – I do it out of goodwill.  Also, I have also worked as a volunteer almost every weekend for 10 years on a ward for mainly the dying. Will I do any of this when you privatise the NHS?  Will I Buxton!

Yours

Sheila

17/03/2012 22:21

Not so! I’m surprised you’re not aware that many people die at home and that will certainly be my objective

I’m extremely unlikely to ever end up in your hospital because we live ten minutes’ walk from King’s College Hospital where I have spent many weeks with the quadruple bypass, lung cancer, compound fracture of left femur and replacement aorta. And St Thomas’s, where I had a colostomy after being knocked off my bicycle in Millbank, is only 2 1/2 km away. The treatment for my blood cancer, blocked arteries, arthritis etc is all at King’s, except I’m seeing Dr Claire Harrison, an oncologist who is following up a cohort of 28 patients discussed in the journal Blood of May 2008 with the same mutation as I have – W515L – on Monday.

I certainly don’t want anybody telling me about football because its a closed book to me, and I wouldn’t want chaplains because I’m a Buddhist. Therefore I know that all things are impermanent and the soul or self is an illusion. When I’m in hospital and close to death, as I have been more than once, I want to be left in peace, and I hope that when I die at home I won’t have lots of visitors. That’s not to denigrate the work you do, which I’m sure some patients find agreeable.

Since you are good enough to tell me about your activities, let me tell you about mine. If you go to my blog ericavebury’blogspot.com and scroll down to ‘Rest of the week’ you will find links to the speeches I made on the floor of the House on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday on a variety of subjects. I also attended Subcommittee F of the Lords EU Committee on Wednesday, and the report of our Subcommittee on EU Drugs Strategy was published. Wednesday evening I attended a dinner to celebrate thge 50th anniversary of my by-election, and earlier today I attended the Secularist of the Year event, at which the award was made to my friend Peter Tatchell. (I am a previous winner of the award, when an amendment of mine abolished the offence of blasphemy).

This coming Monday after my date with the oncologist I will be in the House to helpl see off Lord Owen’s misguided last ditch attempt to derail the HRC Bill, with his motion on the risk registers. Risk registers are internal management tools used by civil servants in formulating advice to ministers on poliy, in this case relaqting to NHS reform. Thye should be protected from disclosure because officials need to feel safe in ‘thinking the unthinkable’ in preparing policy advice – which the FOI Act recognises as one of the grounds for claiming exemption from disclosure. If the registers were published, including the most extreme and improbable scenarios, they would certainly be subject to alarmist misrepresentation, and in future, civil servants would feel inhibited from articulating policy risks in the direct terms they use at present, leading to a deterioration in the quality of advice ministers receive.

Owen’s motion will fail, and I hope that now the Bill is leaving the Lords we will no longer be on the receiving end of absurd and apocalyptic fantasies about the destruction of the NHS by privatisation, but rather that our correspondents will bend their energies to making the changes work, for the benefit of patients, the cause they profess to serve.

And please, if you do write to me again, avoid saying unpleasant things about my friend and colleague Andrew Stunell. Frankly I am repelled by the way you personalise your argument, always the sign of a weak case if I may say so.

Regards,

Eric Avebury

Sat 17/03/2012 22:24

Sorry, I mistyped the blog address.Should be ericavebury.blogspot.com

Regards,

Eric Avebury

I am just amazed that you are so vitriolically hostile to all LibDems because of your personal experience of some of them, and you can’t possibly expect me to reply to your hate speech about Andrew Stunell when I know nothing about the case you describe. I hasten to add that I don’t want to know, because in between answering your emails I’m trying to deal with the deportation of a Malaysian BOC, contrary to an assurance given to me and Simon Hughes after we met the Immigration Minister Damian Green on February 23.

My own experience over the last half century is that LibDems, and Liberals before them, give a much better quality of service to their constituents than the other two parties, and that’s the way we have made a bit of headway against the two-party system. I recognise that the Party has lost ground because we are blamed for all the misdeeds of the coalition, but I’m sure it was the right thing to do to go into coalition to rescue the country from the appalling mess left by Blair and Brown.

I expect to have support when I die at home because I have a wonderful wife who will look after me, I also have a daughter who ;lives in Hackney who I am sure will lend a hand, as well as my youngest son aged 26 who lives at home. They also have resources to bring in paid carers if necessary though I hope on a minimal scale. When I see the oncologist on Monday I hope she’ll tell me roughly what to expect. I will post the details of what she says on my blog, as I do with all my medical details.And I commend to your attention the pictures of my lung cancer removal operation in 2006 on YouTube just enter ericavebury operation.

Regards,

Eric

On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 10:51 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

Wow!

I love the Buddhists.  You say we should do worthwhile work.  If everyone did worthwhile work the World would be a better place. I am massively impressed by your being a Buddhist.  Life is definitely an illusion, as found out by Dostoyevsky, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, Mark Twain. Tolstoy, and some other people I have momentarily forgotten due to having consumed two glasses of Aldi red wine.

This is Manchester, so whether City or United won is a matter of all encompassing importance.  I am a martial arts blackbelt, and if a chaplain appears at the end of my bed when I am dying I will summon up all my remaining strength and punch him on the nose (and it is, of course, likely to be a him). Dying at home is good if there is the support. Is there likely to be, given all the cutbacks to services and charities?

I am impressed by your work schedule and your 50 years in harness.  I am a secularist and a philosophical Taoist, not a religious one, my Bible being the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet.  Blasphemy is an abomination and I routinely am quite rude to my religious friends about their beliefs, reminding them that they have a duty to love me back. 

I got the risk registers on the toxic waste school in a brief nanosecond of LibDem honesty and transparency (please excuse me whilst I spit on the ground at the mere mention of the LibDems and I was stupid enough to vote for them for 25 years).  I think you are spouting rubbish on the risk registers – sorry.

Andrew Stunell was very, very happy to see a completely innocent man repeatedly imprisoned.  How disgustingly appalling is that?  He only asked for counselling for his troubled daughters adopted from Stockport Counci. When he asked them for counselling they had him repeatedly arrested and sent to tough Forest Bank prison, where he was assumed by the prisoners to be a paedophile because he was so sick he was immediately sent to the prison hospital and they knew his case involved children.  Stunell passed by on the other side. I, the atheist, did not.  He doesn’t do much work; nobody here has a good word to say about him.

Kind regards

Sheila

Sun 18/03/2012 11:32

I don’t get involved in the affairs of my own local authority – Lambeth – and I’m certainly not going to poke my nose into the affairs of the Goyt Valley.nor would I take up the case of Mr Purnell. I’m not looking for casework all over the United Kingdom but will stick to my last. If there are criminals on your Council, its a matter for the police. The MPs and peers who were given prison sentences in the expenses scandal were all Tory and Labour, by the way.

And now, if you will kindly give me a breathing space, I will get on with my work.

Regards,

Eric

On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 1:13 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

I shall leave you in peace.  A simple acknowledgement would have sufficed.  You chose to give me details of your cancer, and I truly wish you well at the Oncologist next week.

You insist you will vote for the Bill next week.  Given the excellent news of 250 doctors standing for Parliament, your party will be anihilated and you will go down in history as an accessory to its destruction.  Your 50 years life work down the can.  What for?  So that amongst other things that Ministerial bed-blocker Stunell  and Tories Clegg and Beaker can have their two seconds of power.

Flippin’ ‘eck!

Kind regards

Sheila

Excuse me, but you can’t really believe that my 50-year record turns on whether I vote for Dr Owen’s futile motion, and you haven’t dealt with my arguments against it.

What have you done for victims of religious persecution? for asylum-seekers whose applications have been wrongfully rejected? for prisoners? for the Chagos Islanders evicted from their homes? to promote racial equality? to enhance the use of vaccines, particularly against peneumococcal disease and diarrhoea which between them kill over 4 million infants annually in the developing world? to combat disadvantage among the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities? to end caste discrimination? to combat alcohol harm?

I mentioned my own medical history to show you that I have as much interest as anyone could have in preserving the NHS. I am convinced that your fears are wildly exaggerated and although there are bound to be hiccups as with any major reform, the NHS will emerge stronger and more able to cope with the changes in demography and morbidity that it confronts. The greatest threat it faces is not the Bill, but the alarming growth of self-harm by drugs, alcohol, tobacco and the ingestion of fats and sugars. You should allocate part of your energies to those issues

I’m hoping you will now carry out your promise to leave me in peace.

EA

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

As all clear thinking people could see all along, the Coalition has taken bungs to flog off the NHS.

I think 38 Degrees should amend their leaflets accordingly, and we all need to hit the streets campaigning.

Any half decent Coalition councillor would resign from the party in the face of this corruption – I doubt we have any half decent Coalition councillors.

As I said before, you will go down in history and not in a good way.

Sheila

Sun 25/03/2012 13:16

I am not quite such a fan of 38 degrees as you are, because I have seen how they propagate inaccurate information about the HSC Bill.

I had imagined that you would stop bombarding me with emaills now that the HSC Bill has gone to the Commons, but I see you still have plenty of spare time to lavish on me, with your ludicrous idea that councillors should resign because a Tory fundraiser has told journalists he thought were potential donors that he could get them to meet Cameron for £250,000. It isn’t suggested that he could have delivered on this promise, let alone that he could have persuaded Cameron to have changed some policy or other.

Have you forgotten that Labour DID take bungs for policy changes? See http://tgr.ph/p2jDgA

I am not as worried about my posthumous reputation as you appear to think, since you have mentioned it several times, but if historians mention me at all it will probably be for the Orpington by-election of 1962, of which the 50th anniversary was celebrated on March 14.

Now do give it a rest, Sheila, and let me get on with my work.

Regards,

Eric

Because he isn’t a colleague of mine; that there was no bung in this case, and that there are plenty of real abuses to be horrified about, without getting my knickers in a twist about inchoate abuses

Regards,

Eric

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 4:57 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Mr Dugher

Please continue to press for an inquiry into the donor scandal.  I work in the NHS.  It is being flogged off to dogdy associates of Cameron and Osborne and  LibDems, devoid of a moral compass,  are still condoning this.

Lord Avebury said today:

……”I had imagined that you would stop bombarding me with emaills now that the HSC Bill has gone to the Commons, but I see you still have plenty of spare time to lavish on me, with your ludicrous idea that councillors should resign because a Tory fundraiser has told journalists he thought were potential donors that he could get them to meet Cameron for £250,000. It isn’t suggested that he could have delivered on this promise, let alone that he could have persuaded Cameron to have changed some policy or other.

Have you forgotten that Labour DID take bungs for policy changes? See http://tgr.ph/p2jDgA“….

So, not only does he seem to  condone this behaviour, he doesn’t realise a top Conservative is involved (calling him a Tory fundraiser) and he seems to  think one bung deserves another.

He just doesn’t get it, does he?  I would be horrified if my colleagues were up to that sort of thing. Why isn’t he horrified?

Kind regards

Sheila

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 1:47 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

As I understand it, I pay your allowances.

From: eric avebury

To: Sheila Oliver

Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 1:15 PM

Subject: Re: Obviously the Tories have taken bungs of £250,000 a time to flog off the NHS

I am not quite such a fan of 38 degrees as you are, because I have seen how they propagate inaccurate information about the HSC Bill.

I had imagined that you would stop bombarding me with emaills now that the HSC Bill has gone to the Commons, but I see you still have plenty of spare time to lavish on me, with your ludicrous idea that councillors should resign because a Tory fundraiser has told journalists he thought were potential donors that he could get them to meet Cameron for £250,000. It isn’t suggested that he could have delivered on this promise, let alone that he could have persuaded Cameron to have changed some policy or other.

Have you forgotten that Labour DID take bungs for policy changes? See http://tgr.ph/p2jDgA

I am not as worried about my posthumous reputation as you appear to think, since you have mentioned it several times, but if historians mention me at all it will probably be for the Orpington by-election of 1962, of which the 50th anniversary was celebrated on March 14.

Now do give it a rest, Sheila, and let me get on with my work.

Regards,

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 5:17 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

I just wondered if you would be popping out of your teapot over the snooping proposals?

Kind regards

Sheila

Tue 03/04/2012 18:28

I am not familiar with the expression ‘popping out of your teapot’, so I can’t answer your question. Will you be popping out of your cocktail shaker?

Regards,

Eric

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Sir

The Mad Hatter’s Teaparty.  The dormouse dozed and dozed, but sometimes he woke up to what was going on around him.  I am giving you a gentle nudge;  I am rattling the teapot lid.

Stockport was a hatting town and the workers went mad, poisoned by the Mercury used in the industrial process.  It might go some way to explain why we have repeatedly elected LibDem councillors and MPs.

Stunell is banging on about saving green space again on LibDem Voice today, yet simultaneously planning to build the M56 to A6 bypass through lovely areas of Cheshire.  If I went to B & Q to buy a thick plank and Mr Stunell happened to be in there – I would have to choose very carefully, I can tell you.

The Cheshire Cat – Mark Hunter MP.  Uggghhhh!

Peace and blessings

Sheila

Aha! Now that I know where your inspiration comes from I understand you a little better, though I’m still mystified as to why you favour me with your musings.

I used to read a lot of fantasy years ago but my taste was more Ursula Le Guin and Christian Morgenstern than Lewis Carroll. Now, with only a few months left, I stick to history or biography. Ian Robertson Wellington in France; Ian Mortimer The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England and  Winifred Loraine Robert Loraine: Actor, Soldier, Airman are my bedside reading at the moment.

As to Stockport: I don’t know the area, though my mother’s family came from Alderley

The Buddha said:

Hatred does not come to an end by hatred, but by love.

Metta,

Eric

Wed 04/04/2012 21:55

Sir

I am writing to you because you were happy to flog off my beloved NHS to a chap who took bungs.  I am jolly cross about that and getting crosser.  I am a bit bemused as to why you reply.

I am very sorry to hear of your months left of life.  However, I could go before you and then where would that leave our e-conversation?  My son died in 10 seconds;  I know how fragile life is.

Alderley is lovely and, of course, a hotbed of witchcraft, or so I am told by the tourist industry.

I don’t really think I hate Mr Stunell.  I think you have to like someone to hate them.  I am incensed that he was impervious to the horrendous suffering of a completely innocent man and his family.  It was I, the atheist, who didn’t walk by on the other side and not him the God-botherer.

My taste in reading is a little darker.  I love Dostoyevsky, though I get confused with the name changes.   The bit in The Brothers Karamazov where he describes the funeral of a child – wow!  I was asked by the local newspaper who I would invite to dinner if I had the choice.  I chose Dostoyevsky, because he was a gambler and a hell raiser, and probably would have provided  an excellent evening’s entertainment.

There is trouble at t’mills for t’ Liberal Democraps here in Stockport.    Happen as we might fettle another Government.  I’ll tell t’old man to get t’whippet washed in the tin bath ready for action.

This is me in the beautiful valley right down the centre of our industrial town which Stunell wants to destroy for votes.  My son is buried in a lovely graveyard on the slopes of this valley.  All right, I am not a NIMBY but a NIMGY (not in my graveyard ;o) ).

http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/sheila-oliver-story

Lots of love

Sheila

From: eric avebury

To: Sheila Oliver

Cc: STUNELL, Andrew

Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 9:55 PM

Subject: Re: Will you be popping out of your teapot over the snooping proposals?

Well I do tend to reply to most communications, though it was quite difficult with the HSC Bill

The NHS belongs to all of us, and that was why the LibDems worked so hard to amend the Bill to make it harder to sell bits off to private providers. But that doesn’t mean that everything to do with health care has to be in the public domain. For example, the NHS doesn’t have to make pharmaceuticals or X-ray apparatus, and it never has done either.

I’m so sorry about your son’s sudden death and I can imagine how you must have felt. My grandmother lost two sons, killed in action within months of each other, and she remained in mourning for the remaining 29 years of her life.How on earth did parents cope in earlier centuries, when child mortality was so much higher?

If I still read novels I would return to Dostoevsky, and the Brothers Karamazov in particular, I read all Dostoevsky’s novels when I was at university 60 years ago, in my spare time from studying engineering.

You will know better than I how the LibDems are likely to fare in Stockport. Probably we shall lose seats, as we have done in many other places since we entered into coalition with the Tories. However, it was our duty to rescue the country from the economic disaster created by Blair and Brown, when the only alternative would have been a Tory minority Government, leading to a further general election within weeks. A majority of the people supported the coalition to begin with, and if they had fully realised the scale of the measures needed to correct the deficit, I think they would still have considered that the coalition was the best solution on offer.

That doesn’t mean I think there weren’t other possibilities that I would like to have adopted if I’d been in charge. For instance, scrapping Trident would save £25 billion, and a heavy increase in alcohol duties, sufficient to cause retail prices to rise 10% across the board, would raise £2 billion and probably save as much again in the health and criminal justice systems. Francois Hollande is tallking about a 75% tax on top incomes if he gets to be President of France, another excellent idea. Our slogan at the next general election should be “We can conquer inequality”, as I suggested at my 50th anniversary dinner on March 14.

Snooping proposals: see LibDem reaction in today’s Guardian

See attachment: Me with my wife, two sons (youngest one absent), daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law, at my Silbury Hill four years ago

Mettā,

Eric

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Sir

Lovely photo of your family, and what whopping moles you have down there!

The Liberal Democraps (I must get this spell checker fixed) will make a big noise about objecting to these spying proposals then capitulate completely with what Gideon and Cams want.  It is what they do, as the entire country now knows.  I suspect some  of them are being blackmailed.  The Nasty Party must know a lot of your MPs’ little pecadillos and peculiarities.

A huge number of GPs are now against these NHS proposals.

I make a point of tracking LibDem election boards (do you think I have too much time on my hands?)  At the last local elections boards did not appear where they had previously for many years, and where they did appear they were obviously in the houses of very old people who were perhaps not quite au fait with what was going on politically.  I shall keep you informed of the election board situation here in this former hot bed of LibDem worship-fever.  I shall be truthful, as I am far too dim to be a liar.

I am glad you like Dostoyevsky.  I bet you had no trouble with the names changing.

Peace and blessings

Mrs Oliver

PS  I agree with scrapping Trident and probably with the alcohol increases

PPS engineering is something to be admired.  My mother’s late brother was an excellent engineer doing vital work in the war on the Catalina Flying Boats and with his little engineering factory, which is still going strong

PPS  I shall cc this to Mr Stunneybuns.  I never say anything behind his back.

Fri 06/04/2012 11:02

The first reaction of most people to more snooping is hostile, see the current brou-ha-ha about a Virgin Atlantic employee who tipped off a paparazzi agency about celebrities’ flight details. Yet we happily pas over to the US ALL passenger name records collected by transatlantic airline. These records are meant to be used only in the prevention and detection of serious crime, of course. We are schizophrenic on these issues, vide the release of the mayoral candidates’ income details and the suggestion in the Guardian that candidates for Parliamentary seats may be obliged in future to publish details of their incomes.

Silbury Hill (http://bit.ly/HlIy0L) was constructed by our Neolithic ancestors in the years before 2400 BC. My grandfather bought the monument, enacted the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 (http://bit.ly/HB4AHW), and placed Silbury Hill under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Board which was created by the Act. English Heritage are now the Guardians of the site as successors of the Ancient Monuments Board, while I retain the freehold.

I’m not copying this to Andrew, because I doubt whether he wants or needs to know about our exchanges.

I’d still love to know why you have singled me out for such attention?

Regards,

Eric

On Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

Happy festival of rebirth.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126675/Facebook-Google-internet-giants-forced-hand-data.html

Does this mean that the Libdem leader of Stockport Council (I call him Tiddles because he is like a cuddly old Bagpuss), named under Parliamentary privilege as a cohort of a notorious gangster and thrown out of the Labour Party for reasons perhaps not best gone into here – least said, soonest mended – will have carte blanche to spy on me, a lady whose only offence is a parking ticket in 1996 (I woz done up like a kipper, guv), and who was checked out by the German Secret Service before I took my job with the German Diplomatic Service and found to be totally clean?

It is a funny old world under the LibDems, and no mistake.

I would love to see local  election candidates show their tax returns – there may be some beautiful Jags which can’t quite be explained away out of income – who knows?

Three LibDem election posters seen so far.

I see Trafford General is to lose its A & E, so soon after the Healthcare Bill.  I don’t know the ins and outs, but I am sure your party will suffer electorally for that.

Oodles of love

Sheila

Sun 08/04/2012 20:13

Tomorrow may be the day of Jolly Jack on the Crag, but tomorrow is the day the doggies don’t like, because its a Bank Holiday – instituted by my grandfather St Lubbock (as he was sometimes called) with the Bank Holidays Act 1971. I don’t normally read the Daily Mail, but take a look at http://ind.pn/Hnzl4j

As you have told me about your criminal record, let me give you mine: a single offence of refusing to obey an order by a police officer at a demonstration in about 1978 (can’t give the exact date since I can’t lay hands on the box ‘Torture at Vine Street’ for the moment. I got the desk sergeant to summon a doctor to examine me for the injuries inflicted on me by the arresting officer, and suggested that the officer should also be examined to see whether he was suffering from a mental illness that might explain his conduct)

Since you worked for the German Diplomatic Service I imagine you must speak German, so I attach one of my all-time favourite poems.

I’m not sure that it would be a good idea to make candidates at any level reveal their tax returns, and the example of the London Mayoral candidates shows that all may not be as it seems. Ken declared the income he received from his company, but not the retained profits of the company, as Boris pointed out

I don’t know about the Trafford A&E but I do know that with as with any hospital department, high throughputs mean greater effectiveness and lower mortality. Therefore although the closure of an A&E department always sparks local opposition, it means that casualties from the area have better treatment and better survival rates. Taking a bit longer to get from the scene of the injury or other medical crisis to the hospital isn’t a material factor in survival rates.

Metta,

Eric

Der Lattenzaun
Es war einmal ein Lattenzaun, mit Zwischenraum, hindurchzuschaun.
Ein Architekt, der dieses sah, stand eines Abends plotzlich da
und nahm den Zwischenraum heraus und baute draus ein grofies Haus.
Der Zaun indessen stand ganz dumm, mit Latten ohne was herum.
EinAnblick graKlich und gemein. Drum zog ihn der Senat auch ein.
Der’Architekt jedoch entfloh nach Afri – od – Ameriko.

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrot (copied to Lord Avebury):

Dear Councillor Goddard

Mon 09/04/2012 19:39

Yet another LibDem disgrace!  Some photos of Offerton Precinct attached. Your councillors entirely made up the Stepping Hill Area committee which a few years ago refused point blank to support the high quality proposed precinct development in Offerton, with which local people and local businesses were all in accord.  Your councillors have left the people of Offerton with this dangerous and almost derelict precinct.  Where is the proposed development by the current owners of the Precinct of which you all spoke so highly?

I have no idea what goes on in LibDem noggins, but I think you might all need psychiatric help.

Yours in disgust

Sheila

Mon 09/04/2012 19:39

See my Tweet about Abdul Hakim Belhaj rendition @EricAvebury

Metta,

Eric

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote: (copied to Lord Avebury)

Dear Councillor Goddard

As you know I worked very hard to get re-development of this area with an honest (non-backhander paying) developer, who genuinely wanted to do something good for the area and give the people what they wanted and needed.  Your councillors and several senior council officers thwarted those good intentions at every turn, and now look what we are left with.

And you will have the cheek to ask the people of Offerton to vote for you shortly!

Sheila

Mon 09/04/2012 19:57

Half a million people made stateless overnight http://ind.pn/I8slJS

Mon 09/04/2012 20:21

What is Blair doing? We never hear of him nowadays http://bit.ly/HqeZfW

— Eric Avebury

Mon 09/04/2012 20:32

See my Tweet about this news item http://bit.ly/Ib0ihh

— Eric Avebury

Mon 09/04/2012 20:42

Please write to your American friends asking them to lobby for the PMOI to be taken off the US terrorist list, see @EricAvebury

— Eric Avebury

Mon 09/04/2012 22:33

Please write to the Bahraini Ambassador appealing for the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, foremost Bahraini human rights activist, who is at death’s door after more than 60 days on hunger strike as a protest against the torture inflicted on him, and the life sentence imposed on him by a military court, see my Tweet. Her address:

H E Ms Alice Thomas Samaan
Ambassador,
Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain,
30 Belgrave Square,

London SW1X 8QB   Eric Avebury

Mon 09/04/2012 22:40

See also http://bit.ly/HRXDCE

— Eric Avebury

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 7:27 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

Thank you for your many emails.

I feel you are straying from the LibDem path, and it is my pastoral duty to minister unto you and help you see where you are going wrong.

Happy to flog off the NHS to Cameron’s dodgy pals?  Tick!  Happy for the snooping on all the users of t’Internet?  Tick!   – So far so good.

But now, caring about people less fortunate, trying to right judicial wrongs…..you are failing as a Liberal Democrap (must get this spellchecker fixed), and something must be done.

Practice snarling at poor people in the street and in meetings,  try banning them, calling them liars, taking their last vestiges of green space illegally and putting their young children on unremediated toxic waste.  When you have mastered that see if you can get a few innocent people banged up in tough Forest Bank prison in Manchester, falsifying their council tax to make it look like they have arrears and get them thrown out of their homes.  Try building a billion pound PFI bypass through a beautiful valley in the process trampling on otters, throttling kingfishers till their eyes pop and cutting down 400 year old trees to make LibDem leaflets. BUT, at the same time pontificate on how good you are at protecting the environment.   Divert tens of thousands of pounds of public money into LibDem funds (see attached – one of many).    Take a few bungs to get dodgy planning deals through. 

How are your smugness and arrogance levels?  Are they at the top of the LibDemometer?  They recommend for LibDems a reading of 15,000psi is the norm.  See the Executive Councillors at Stockport if you need extra tuition.  Get Councillor Weldon to teach you public speaking – his unintelligble Scouser is zum sterben!   Log on to LibDem Voice and practice braying forth on the most boring, boring, boring of subjects.

You must also  adhere to the Groucho Marx and Nick Clegg doctrine:  “These are my principles and if you don’t like them, I have others.”

Sir, I am only trying to  help.  How will you progress up the LibDem greasy pole if you are not baaaaaad?

Oodles of love

Sheila

Tue 10/04/2012 19:41

http://bit.ly/IwoVyR

Not signed by Lord Avebury

Tue 10/04/2012 22:45

McLaren is 50% owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain and that’s why they won’t call the F1 event off while people are being killed on the streets and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja after more than 60 days o humger strike faces imminent death. Twitter @ericavebury
Eric Avebury

Tue 10/04/2012 22:50

Traveller Education Services being phased out in London – and everywhere else too

Eric Avebury

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Sir

More from LibDem Voice tonight:-

“Stephen – this article is spectacularly wrong on two counts:

1) You clearly don’t understand the Health & Social Care Act, but one of the key points about it is that it makes local authorities relevant to the NHS, through Health & Well-being Boards. So it is a local election issue.

2) Every Lib Dem local election leaflet I saw between 2004-2007 had a photo of Tony Blair and George Bush on. How was that relevant to the local elections? And, as many of your members have pointed out here, Nick Clegg is campaigning on national issues like income tax. So, even if you were right about the NHS not being a local issue, this article would be staggering hypocrisy.

I think the real reason you have written this is because you know how damaged the Lib Dems have been by supporting the Tory marketisation of the NHS. At the next election, other parties will be campaigning against ‘Lib Dem NHS privatisation’. And rightly so.”

Your people, sir, not mine.

Sheila

Thu 12/04/2012 23:14

According to The Guardian, Mr Cameron will identify four groups in the Islamic world that are determined to defeat democracy. First are the authoritarian leaders Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian President Zine-al-Abidine Ben Ali and Assad
In each case”, he says, the Arab spring has shown that denying people their rights in the name of stability and security actually males countries less stable in the end. Over time the pressure builds up until the people take to the streets and demand their freedoms”.

Thu 12/04/2012 23:15

Should EU naval forces help Kenya/Ethiopia joint operation to occupy Kismayo by blockading the port to prevent pirates and terrorists escaping to Yemen? http://bit.ly/I8V6nx 

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 10:39 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Dear Lord Avebury

This is what they are saying on LibDem Voice this evening (I read it so you don’t have to):-

“I wasn’t sure what you meant in the original article, but having read your posting above I have to say that I agree with you entirely.
I was going to preface the last bit with “sadly”, but as I wrote it I realised that in fact this restores my faith somewhat in the LDs in that I am not alone in feeling let down by what has been done since May 2010. I am however still sad at what I expect to be in store for us over the next couple of parliaments.
I don’t foresee an exodus by the parliamentary party to the Conservatives, but only because I don’t think the Conservatives would accept them. I also suspect that many have burnt their bridges with contributions to debates over NHS reforms and tuition fees, so won’t be crossing the floor of the house either (some might). Consequently, I suspect that the future of the party will be defined by whichever MPs retain their seats after 2015 (and by possible Scottish independence). I hope that it would be shaped by the membership but based on the last 24 months I am not optimistic and will not consider rejoining the party lest it be seen as supporting its current position.”

 What is that flapping sound?

Love

Mrs Oliver

Thu 12/04/2012 23:23

http://bbc.in/HEwZj6

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Sheila Oliver <sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Sir

I knew that; well some of it anyway.  As mentioned, I am too dim to be a liar.

Two more LibDem election boards seen.  But, interestingly, we have a Liberal Party candidate in our area as opposed to a Liberal Democrap one (must get this spellchecker fixed).  You could renounce Cleggism and revert to being a good, old-fashioned Liberal. What do you think?

Busy making chicken noodle soup with vegetarian dumplings in the pressure cooker (I should have been Jewish), so if this e-chat suddenly tails off you will know there has been an explosion in Cheshire.

We can let you have some water if you are a bit short down there.  The LibDem council doesn’t clear the leaves from any grids, so lakes congregate around each one.  I had to paddle ankle deep to get home this evening.  Bless, what are they like?  Poppets!

Ooodles of love

Sheila

PS  Get down on them knees and pray for me, Mr Stunell.

Thu 12/04/2012 23:23

http://bit.ly/IJtXc7

Fri 13/04/2012 10:17

When you started writing to me your objective was to change my approach to the HSC Bill. After the Bill had completed its passage through the Lords you have continued to email me frequently, with no purpose in mind that I can discern. I have continued to respond to your emails in an attempt to indicate that my concerns lie in areas entirely different from yours. I had hoped that after a while it would become clear to you that your emails are not serving any purpose, and that you might therefore direct your energies elsewhere. You may not have better ways of occupying your time, but I do, so I’m now terminating our correspondence.

— Eric Avebury

That great human rights campaigner couldn’t have cared any less about what LibDem Lords Goddard and Stunell did to sick, innocent Mr Parnell RIP.

http://www.sheilaoliver.org/mr-parnell-rip.html