
Macfarlane Trust staff (Macfarlane Trust Handbook 1999) In 2018 monies from the closed trust were transferred to the Terrence Higgins Trust
(Image via Macfarlane Trust)
The following letter was sent to Ian Green (then) CEO of the Terrence Higgins Trust on November 15th 2022, contact details supplied.
Dear Ian,
I am the widow of haemophiliac, Peter Longstaff who died in 2005 after receiving HIV/HCV Contaminated Blood on the NHS and his brother Stephen, also an haemophiliac who died of AIDS in 1986.
I am writing to you to express my grave concerns over Terrence Higgins Trust continuing to hold the monies transferred from the now defunct Macfarlane Trust as follows which I am also raising with the Infected Blood Inquiry. This is chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff and began in 2018 with the aim of investigating the circumstances surrounding the infection of haemophiliacs and some partners with Contaminated Blood and those family members and carers affected by this scandal. (The Inquiry also investigates infection of persons through whole blood transfusion.) My concerns are as follows:-
- Concerns over whether the transfer of Macfarlane Trust monies was legal and the issue of why some registrants and long standing campaigners were excluded from having a voice regarding the scrapping of 5 Trusts?
In case you are not aware, the government lied by saying all registrants and campaigners had been consulted with regard to the scrapping of 5 trusts including the Macfarlane Trust.
At the time of the 1991 HIV haemophilia litigation, lawyers assured haemophiliacs that the Macfarlane Trust was there “for life”.
As a one time member and first female to sit on the Macfarlane Trust Joint Partnership Group, I attended meetings at Alliance House where registrants with HIV and their partners were reassured by Trust staff that the Macfarlane Trust would remain “as long as the last infected and affected person remained alive”.
Government lied saying that all registrants had been consulted on the scrapping of the 5 Trusts including Macfarlane, my campaign colleague Colette Wintle and I were informed that we, as long standing campaigners, had deliberately been left out of a meeting to discuss any concerns with a government appointed mediator.
An FOI request to government showed that some campaign groups/campaigners did not appear on a government list of campaign groups including my own. This was quite extraordinary given we now know internal government documents showed civil servants and ministers discussing incriminating documents I held and how to handle me from the early 2000s, also naming Colette and which showed our campaigning was clearly having an impact.
A letter from myself sent to Jan Barlow CEO over the future of the Macfarlane Trust went unanswered.
Some long standing campaigners did not receive questionnaires to complete regarding the future of the Trusts until AFTER the closing submission date.
We had no opportunity to discuss the scrapping of the Macfarlane Trust with our former HIV lawyers, indeed my late husband’s former lawyer only found out Macfarlane was to be scrapped through me.
- Funding of a plagiarist.
THT have chosen to fund Jason Evans who has extensively plagiarised my multi awarded research which is supported by Lord David Owen who refers to me as the “oracle” of Contaminated Blood. Owen backed Dr Stuart Hodkinson, Leeds University, putting me forward for the Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC Michael Young Prize which I won. I was also awarded the Committee of Ten Thousand Action =Life Award along with my late husband for our service to haemophiliacs with HIV/HCV and “upholding truth and justice”. The award was given to me at a ceremony on Capitol Hill alongside the greatly respected Dr Don Francis (epidemiologist, former CDC, who was featured in the film, “And the Band Played On”) and Dr Jay Epstein (former FDA, Virology).
Mr Evans admitted to “following” me for 2 years before he began campaigning (unbeknown to me at the time) and also admitted in an email to me that he knows I want to be referenced, yet he fails time and time again to reference my work in public and the copies of thousands of government documents which government destroyed and which I saved, used in my research and awarded dissertation. He often obtains these documents via Freedom of Information from the National Archives at Kew. A Newcastle firm of solicitors returned many of these documents from my husband’s litigation files held between 3 sets of solicitors to the NA Kew on my instructions which are documented in legal letters and in Hansard where questions were raised pertaining to these documents.
In addition, Lord Patrick Jenkin and I had worked hard in 2005 to save all existing blood policy documents in all government archives (including NA Kew) obtaining a commitment that they would be preserved in case of a Public Inquiry. The Infected Blood Inquiry has assured me they now have access to all these remaining documents and I note are using them to question witnesses.
Mr Evans has rehashed many of my earlier stories which I put out in the media from 2000 with my husband as part of our awarded Newcastle Journal Bad Blood campaign and in many national publications and through our Royal Television Society nominated 2007 BBC Newsnight where I was the official researcher.
Mr Evans is claiming falsely to the media he “discovered” documents from around 2017 (many of which were used by myself to confront ministers in face to face meetings at Westminster in the early 2000s) and this falsification of dates of discovery in the media and elsewhere and failure to correctly reference, distorts the Timeline of who knew what and when and allows those who ignored key evidence to escape further scrutiny and accountability. This is quite extraordinary given that Evans was speaking at the recent launch of the Public Accountability APPG aiming to bring in a Hillsborough Law. How can you have truth, justice and accountability with false Timelines of discovery?
The Inquiry is aware of my concerns and the “conflict of interest” with Mr Evans hence the decision by Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry to allow myself and Colette Wintle separate legal representation to him and away from the 4 original firms appointed to the Inquiry. Mr Evans is not the only one who has plagiarised my research.
I was warned before the Inquiry began I would be cancelled out of my own history re Contaminated Blood and national media due to my support for the legitimate rights of Palestinians denied them by the apartheid state of Israel. Well they have picked on the wrong woman. I take such threats very seriously!
- Ivor Caplin, Chair of Advisors to THT and Chair of Pro-Israel Group, Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) named in Al Jazeera, Labour Files documentary
It is with growing horror that I have followed the divisions within the Labour Party over recent years and the weaponization of antisemitism and racism and have followed legal cases regarding defamation and libel which have been won by those targeted. I note that Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) members that have supported Jeremy Corbyn are particularly under attack that have spoken out against apartheid Israel and Zionism which is NOT antisemitic. I quote the following from the BBC which refers to the Forde Report ,
John McDonnell: Labour treatment of Jewish group brutal (BBC, 27th July)
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has accused Labour of treating a Jewish group within the party “brutally”.
Last week a report on Labour’s handling of the anti-Semitism row under Jeremy Corbyn found supporters and critics had used it as a “factional weapon”.
Mr McDonnell claims the report shows the party used its disciplinary procedures to target members of the pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL)
He said a disproportionate number of JVL members had been disciplined, suspended and expelled from the party.
Members of the group were up to 35 times more likely to face anti-Semitism investigations than other, mostly non-Jewish, Labour members, he claimed.
The JVL says it stands for “rights and justice for Jewish people everywhere, and against wrongs and injustice to Palestinians and other oppressed people anywhere”.
I take such threats seriously due to an attempt by Dame Diana Johnson MP (Labour Friends of Israel and APPG Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood and blood products) who sat on my key evidence on Contaminated Blood for years to falsely accuse me of “antisemitic conspiracy theories” for asking why she had failed to highlight the medical apartheid treatment of Palestinian haemophiliacs (whom I have interviewed) and the alleged use of Israeli Pegasus spyware on NGOs, lawyers, journalists, and activists, (now the subject of legal cases launched by UK lawyers). Johnson also breached the confidentiality of haemophiliacs and their family members (including myself and fellow campaigner Colette Wintle) during a mail-out which I believe may already be the subject of a legal challenge. I was appalled to be treated this way as someone who was brought up to read books on the Holocaust, had been invited to speak at Holocaust memorial day (which my former MP Jim Cousins also attended) and visited Auschwitz and many other important sites of remembrance. Indeed, haemophiliacs have their own holocaust referred to by lawyers as the “Haemophilia Holocaust”. I do however along with many Jews reject Zionism. You can reject Zionism without being antisemitic. Indeed I am supporting Jews whose family members died in the Holocaust who have themselves been falsely labelled “antisemitic” for standing up for the much persecuted Palestinians under Israeli occupation that have their rights removed and are being killed on a daily basis. The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism states,
- Criticizing or opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism, or arguing for a variety of constitutional arrangements for Jews and Palestinians in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. It is not antisemitic to support arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants “between the river and the sea,” whether in two states, a binational state, unitary democratic state, federal state, or in whatever form.
And
- Boycott, divestment and sanctions are commonplace, non-violent forms of political protest against states. In the Israeli case they are not, in and of themselves, antisemitic.
https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/
I was shocked to see Ivor Caplin, your Chair of Advisors to THT and Chair of Pro Israel Group, Jewish Labour Movement named in the recent Al Jazeera, Investigations Documentary, Labour Files produced by award winning Richard Sanders which I found deeply disturbing. I also note there is to be a further showing of the documentary at 7pm on Sunday November 27th by 4 women, in Hove, Rebecca Massey, Anne Mitchell, Pamela Fitzpatrick and Carel Buxton with 6 men named for discussion relating to the film as follows, Peter Kyle, Warren Morgan, Ivor Caplin, Luke Stanger, Jonathan Hoffman and Gareth Thomas. Until there have been an extensive and open investigation into the Labour Files, (which both Labour and Tory leadership are avoiding like the plague) I do not feel THT (who do not represent me anyway as I represent myself) to be a suitable venue for MFT monies which I believe should be surrendered to another body. The event posted on Twitter to take place alleges as follows:-
Al Jazeera has obtained the biggest leak in British political history, exposing how unelected officials undermined democracy within the Labour Party.
The leak, documents, emails, video, and audio files- reveals how the parties bureaucrats, whose function is supposedly to serve the interests of the party attempted to undermine members supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader from 2015 to 2020.
The Labour Files show how supporters of Corbyn were smeared with false accusations of abusive behaviour, including homophobia and anti Semitism with the clear intention of suspending or expelling them from the party.
In Brighton and Hove- anti Corbyn activists – including Hove MP Peter Kyle and his supporters (pictured below) lied and lied again in a series of events which revealed the Labour Party to be a criminal conspiracy against its members.
In its first public screening in the city, join Rebecca Massey, Anne Mitchel, Pamela Fitzpatrick, and Carol Buxton to discuss the findings of the remarkable Al Jazeera investigation.
END
Ivor Caplin is one of the men named in the documentary.
I note also Richard Angells (Terrence Higgins Trust) who was director of the main Blairite think tank Progress and linked to Jewish Labour Movement made comment on social media with regard to a well- known woman named Ella Rose who appeared in an earlier and also disturbing Al Jazeera documentary series, “The Lobby”.
The Lobby is a series of documentaries produced by Al Jazeera that investigate the influence of the Israel lobby in the United Kingdom[1] and the Israel lobby in the United States and their relationship to the BDS movement.[2][3] (Wikipedia)
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions is (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the same principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS calls urgent action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.
BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds
Richard Angells said,
“One of my highlights of my year was Ella Rose asking me to speak at the JLM rally at #Lab16. “
Here is a quote regarding Rose speaking in a threating manner about Jaci Walker. (Walker who is of mixed Jewish and African descent is a supporter of Palestinian rights, a critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians, and a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She is also a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign ) She said the mainstream media and the right of the Labour Party had weaponised anti-Semitism to attack Corbyn. (Wikepedia). She was expelled from the Labour Party.
UK Israel funding spin trips as it smears critic (Al Jazeera, 12th January, 2017)
Quote,
Later, Ella Rose, director of the Jewish Labour Movement who previously worked at the Israeli embassy, discredited Walker, calling her a “f******g anti-Semite”.
She (Ella) boasted of having undergone training in Krav Maga, a hand-to-hand combat technique developed by the Israeli military.
“You know what, I could take her. She’s like 5ft 2in and tiny,” Rose told Robin.
Al Jazeera showed Walker the footage of Rose. She said: “If they accuse anybody of anti-Semitism it is basically as bad as kind of accusing somebody of being a paedophile or a murderer.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/1/12/uk-israel-funding-spin-trips-as-it-smears-critics
I fail to understand how Richard Angells would support a woman who made such aggressive and threatening comments against Walker.
I note Dame Diana Johnson MP states on social media in 2018, Tonight I stood in solidarity with the affiliated Jewish Labour Movement established in 1903….(the group to which Caplin and Angell are affiliated) so no surprise given her political stance that she would sit on Contaminated Blood evidence which I sent her repeatedly (my being also a supporter of Palestinian rights and a critic of apartheid Israel.) My awarded research was sent to her 6 times, 3 times by me and 3 times by haemophiliac, Colette Wintle.
Returning to Terrence Higgins Trust, haemophiliacs and their families are a vulnerable and much traumatised patient group and the last thing they need is to be caught up in the middle of political allegations and counter allegations which have surfaced. I do not think any such concerns and allegations can be simply ignored in the current hostile political climate and as well as individuals allegedly being falsely defamed, I note that Ian Byrne Labour MP alleges he has received a death threat so all reports of intimidation and abuse must be taken seriously. This country has fought long wars alleging we are a “democracy” yet how hypocritical when interference in that process carries on without investigation. In addition, I have my own concerns about the involvement of apartheid Israel and its supporters regarding UK political parties, Tory and Labour and other institutions.
- Further matter of money owed to me by THT
There is a further matter concerning money owed to me by THT as the Cabinet Office has directed me to you due to a now admitted past error concerning calculation of my monthly allowance but that will be dealt with in a separate correspondence.
These are the grounds on which I raise my concerns with regard to THT.
I look forward to your prompt response.
With thanks
Yours sincerely
Carol Grayson
Links
Contaminated Blood: Concerns registered with MP and Jan Barlow from 2016 over proposed scrapping of Macfarlane Trust were ignored by the CEO
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She was a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”