Former MP John Barrett's daughter Sarah to run 10k to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support

Everyone will be delighted that popular former Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West John Barrett is well on the road to recovery after suffering from Cancer last year. After surgery and 6 gruelling months of chemotherapy, he was in fine form as he chaired the Vince Cable Q and A in Edinburgh in July.

John's daughter Sarah Atsa is doing a 10k run next month to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support. who  have been great in the way they've supported John. Many of us will know how brilliant they are at giving superb information and support to the whole family, not just the person who's ill.

We would have been lost without them when my mother-in-law was ill. They even came out on Christmas Day when we needed them.

If you can, please support Sarah's fundraising effort here.

Vince on leadership speculation, principles, Osborne, independence and much more

Edinburgh has been very well indulged this weekend. Madonna played Murrayfield, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy people were in town and last night, Business Secretary Vince Cable answered questions from Scottish Liberal Democrat members. This was quite hastily arranged at the end of last week, but the room was packed. This was not bad for a day when there was so much sport on tv.

We wanted to include as many people as possible so we took questions via email and Twitter. Vince covered a huge range of topics and stayed considerably longer than planned. He also didn't keep his audience waiting for four hours before even getting on stage unlike certain international music icons. Subjects
included tax, immigration, banks, honesty in public and corporate life, the coalition, the Chancellor, the arms trade, the independence referendum, renewable energy, equal pay, that interview in the Financial Times, executive pay, getting more women on boards, whether London should still be a global financial centre and the Green Investment Bank. He did what I feel our ministers don't do enough of - take responsibility and credit for what they personally have done. He said that he and Mike Moore had insisted on the new Green Investment Bank being in Edinburgh and that he had insisted against the wishes of others that the Minimum Wage should be increased this year. What was interesting was what wasn't asked - there was nothing about Lords reform, indicating, maybe, that north of the border our members aren't that fussed about it?

We didn't spare him either. One of the questions which came in over Twitter was "when did you decide to stop being principled and become morally bankrupt for the sake of a sniff of power?" His response was that it would have been unprincipled to sit on sidelines when the country needed a stable Government to deal with the economic crisis.

Everyone will be delighted to see former Edinburgh West MP John Barrett back in action after a period of illness. He chaired last night's session in his usual relaxed and good humoured style.

Vince was in great form. He spoke to us like we were grown ups and showed quite a lot of empathy and understanding with our position as members and activists. I asked about how we get people back who've voted for the party for decades, or who've stopped being members over the coalition. He offered encouragement, remembering how he'd stood for the party when we were an asterisk in the opinion polls and then being elected to Parliament less than a decade later. He understood how the presence of the nationalists makes the playing field different up here - as you'd expect from a former Glasgow Councillor. He's keeping a close eye on Salmond, whom he likes personally, but suspects that the shine will come off the SNP as they continue not delivering on things in Government and in the wake of the referendum on independence. I feel happy that he's on the Cabinet Committee which is discussing Scotland and the referendum. He and Mike Moore are an effective team. Mike will do reason, Vince will do robust realpolitik. We need both. Everyone agreed with him that Scottish leader Willie Rennie is an "inspirational character."

I collected together tweets from the event which cover most of the questions and put them in a storify thingy which is below for your enjoyment. There are more photos and even a bit of mischief. Find out exactly what Vince said about the cult of youth...

Former MP John Barrett speaks out against ESA assessments for Cancer patients

Regular readers will be aware of mine and George Potter's campaign against the Government's proposals to put Cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy through work capability assessments.

At the moment, if you have Cancer and are undergoing IV chemo, you don't have to undergo the assessments, but if you're on oral chemo, you do. Macmillan Cancer Support and others highlighted this discrepancy and the Government decided to make the system the same for both groups. Unfortunately, they've done it the wrong way round. Instead of extending the exemption to the people on oral chemo, they've taken it away from those on iv chemo.

Now, both types of treatment are pretty hardcore. Cancer cells respond only to the most heavy duty of toxins. Anyone undergoing chemo is unlikely to be able to work while they're having the treatment because of the nasty, debilitating, dramatic side effects which can range from ulcers to vomiting to exhaustion and just about everything in between.

Just after I launched the petition, John Barrett, our former MP for Edinburgh West contacted me and said that he supported what we were trying to do and said he was happy for us tell that to the world, or at least the small part of it which reads our blogs.

Many of us in Scotland knew at the time that John had just undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his colon and was waiting to hear whether he'd have to undergo chemotherapy himself. It turns out that he does and will be starting this next month. Two weeks ago, he told the Scotsman about what he'd been through and how he wanted to tell everyone to use the NHS bowel cancer screening kit and not leave it gathering dust.

John has now told the Edinburgh Evening News that he wants the Government to rethink its plans for ESA. After objections from Macmillan, they were already undertaking a further consultation which will hopefully lead to them issuing an automatic exemption to everyone while they are undergoing treatment for Cancer.

He said:

“I’m speaking to my former parliamentary colleagues to say when this comes up they need to stop it.

“Macmillan are the experts. We should listen to what they and other charities are saying.”

I was not encouraged by the response from the DWP spokeswoman, however. She said:

“However, we do believe that assuming work is not an option for all cancer sufferers is not the right way ahead.”

Let's be realistic here. Cancer sufferers in the middle of treatment are unlikely to be able to work. They have enough to do dealing with the effects of the treatment. A medical certificate from a GP saying they're undergoing Chemo or Radiotherapy at the moment is all that should be needed for them to claim ESA. Once that treatment has finished, then, ok, resume the normal assessment system, but for goodness sake leave them alone while the toxins are doing their thing.

It bothers me that failure to return an ATOS form on time could mean that people lose their benefits. If that deadline falls at the wrong time in the treatment cycle and someone's too ill to complete the form, they will get a nasty shock next benefit day and they shouldn't have to go through that stress, and the stress of having to sort it all out, when they are so sick.

We also know that ATOS make mistakes. There's every possibility that they could decide that someone in the midst of chemo is fit for work and make them lose their benefit. Appealing that takes a long time and is also very stressful - not to mention they'll be expected to show evidence of job hunting if they're put back onto Job Seekers' Allowance or lose their benefit completely.

Asking for an exemption is not about writing people off forever, it's about recognising the debilitating effects of Cancer treatment while it's happening. Hopefully most people, once their treatment is over, will be fit enough to resume work and get on with their lives. If you agree with us that Cancer patients undergoing Chemo or Radiotherapy should be automatically exempt from these extra assessments, please sign our petition here and if you're a Lib Dem member, write to Party President Tim Farron (tim.farron@libdems.org.uk) and tell him how you feel. I know he's already looking into this, but I want him to be able to go to Nick Clegg and say he's had thousands of e-mails from party members who want us to stop the Government's proposals.

 Can you do that today, please? Also please spread the word as widely as you can. I'm hoping that this should be winnable because there is literally no sense in wasting time and energy putting people through assessments when they're clearly too ill to work by the very nature of what's happening to them. It's the right thing to do.

Former MP John Barrett tells how Cancer screening saved his life.

I know that many party members across the country will be concerned to hear that popular former Edinburgh West Lib Dem MP John Barrett has recently had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his Colon. He's decided to talk about his experience in order to persuade others not just to leave the screening kit the NHS sends to over 50s to one side gathering dust, but to make sure they use it.

He spoke to the Scotsman about what he's gone through and his forthcoming chemotherapy. It's obviously been a huge shock and upheaval, but he's recovering well from the operation and hopefully in a few months time, this will all be just a bad memory.

John is certain that if he hadn't taken advantage of the screening programme, it could all have been so much worse. He literally had no idea that anything was wrong as he felt perfectly healthy.

“Had the screening not picked it up. I would be sailing along in blissful ignorance while the tumour was growing.

“So although it’s not a pleasant experience and it was major surgery and now I’m about to start chemotherapy, the alternative would have been five years from now feeling pains in my tummy and the news could have been much worse.”

I never thought I'd see the day that John Barrett would have something in common with Sharon Osbourne. Her recovery from Colon Cancer 9 years ago similarly inspired her to think of and help others.

So, if you have received that bulky envelope from the NHS and have been avoiding using it cos it's just a wee bit icky, stop procrastinating and get on with it.

John has always been a popular figure at Party Conferences, Scottish and Federal - something to do with his wicked sense of humour, I think and I know that many of you reading this will want to wish him well. If you would like to send him a card, please post it to c/o Scottish Liberal Democrats, 4 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR and I'll make sure he gets them. Thanks to our lovely and awesome Party administrator Linda, who doesn't get paid enough but brings endless fun, joy and organisation into our lives, for saying it would be ok to put that.

Former Liberal Democrat MP John Barrett backs campaign to exempt all cancer patients from work assessments

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a text from John Barrett, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, yesterday morning as I was tootling round the supermarket. He wanted to let me know that he was "happy to support your campaign on chemotherapy proposals" and that I could put his support on my blog.

I wanted to leave yesterday to Joshua's appeal, but I'm really grateful to John. I know that he will also be advocating behind the scenes on this one as well.

Just to recap the situation, at the moment, if you are receiving intravenous chemo for Cancer you are automatically exempt from all assessments to see if you're fit for work that come along with claiming Employment and Support Allowance. However, if you are receiving oral chemo or radiotherapy, you have to go through them, even though your treatment can have just as horrendous side effects. Macmillan Cancer Support and others presented evidence to the Government to ask for all chemo patients to be exempt.

Unfortunately, the Government, while agreeing that there was a discrepancy, went the other way, and decided that all patients undergoing chemo should be assessed. This to me puts an unacceptable burden on people. Having hardcore poisons circulating in your system in near fatal quantities is more than enough for any one person to deal with at any one time. Having to deal with filling in complex forms from ATOS is just asking too much. Of course, if you miss the deadline for filling it in, you'll end up losing your benefit which could be a nightmare to sort out - and clearly impacts the most on those without family support or another income in the household.  The easiest thing would be to put everyone who files a certificate saying they are undergoing chemo for Cancer into the support group for the duration of their treatment and simply leave them alone.

Macmillan, perfectly understandably, are not happy with this. To its credit, the Government has suspended hte proposals and put them out for further consultation. What the petition George and I have set up aims to do is add weight to the case put forward by Macmillan. I don't want to put words into George's mouth, but I certainly believe it is the only humane option.

If you agree with George, John Barrett and hundreds of others, please sign here and share as widely as you can.

It's also good to see Party President Tim Farron say he's going to look into this. In response to George's article on Lib Dem Voice yesterday,  he said on Twitter last night:

It would be fabulous if he could come back and tell us that under no circumstances will Cancer patients undergoing chemo be required to undergo any work capability assessments.