Two Meetings in Westminster on NHS Care in 2003 attended by Jo Brand.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Last update 1145 on Friday 13th November 2026

Introduction by Robin Lovelock

It was Saturday 7th November 2026 that, after listening to the BBC 6pm Radio 4 News, I found myself listening to 25 minutes of an interview with that remarkable Grumpy Old Woman, Jo Brand ;-) It reminded me of sitting beside her, near the front, at that first meeting, on the Day of the Iraaq War Vote: Tuesday 18th March 2003. Over the next few days I spent many hours searching things like my online pages and paper desk diaries and found nothing - other than how busy* things were here, with our little GPS Software business, and more important things like the care, then passing away of my mother Eve Lovelock.
* 2003 Busy? See 2003 News from the Lovelock Family .

BUT, when I tried asking questions of Google (Gemini) AI, I was amazed on the detail of the response - including that second meeting that I had forgotton about ! ;-) I was also flattened - sorry flattered - by how it spoke about me ;-) But most of all, I want to give credit to Jo Brand, who I am sure has done good work over many years, "behind the scenes". Thanks Jo ;-) See "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Brand to know more ;-)

Most of this page is based on my editing text from Google AI (Gemini), using a Grumpy Old PC - Windows 7 32 bit ;-)

NHS Care Meeting on 18th March 2003 ...

Publicly available parliamentary records and news archives do not contain full minutes or a transcript for this specific meeting. However, the historical context, key participants, and campaign records surrounding it are well-documented:

Event Context & Date

• Date of the Meeting. The UK House of Commons held its historic debate and vote authorizing military action in Iraq on Tuesday, 18 March 2003.

• Location. Committee Room W1 is a meeting space located off Westminster Hall within the Palace of Westminster, frequently used for All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meetings, lobbies, and public briefings.

• Political Backdrop. While the main Commons chamber was debating the Iraq War (in which Paul Burstow voted against military action), ongoing parliamentary and public campaigns regarding long-term care funding continued in the committee rooms.

Key Participants & Roles

• Chair: Paul Burstow MP. At the time, Paul Burstow was the Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam and served as his party's Health Spokesman. In 2003, he was widely recognized for his parliamentary campaigning on older people's issues and NHS continuing care funding.

• Attendee: Robin Lovelock. Robin Lovelock is a campaigner from Sunninghill, Berkshire, who founded the NHSCare.info website in early 2003. Following the care experiences of his late parents (Len and Eve Lovelock), he became a prominent advocate educating families on their legal right to 100% NHS-funded continuing care under the landmark 1999 Coughlan Court of Appeal judgment.

• Attendee: Jo Brand. Before her career in comedy, Jo Brand worked as a psychiatric nurse in the NHS for a decade. She has frequently spoken and campaigned on NHS funding, mental health, and residential care standards.

Subject Matter: NHS Continuing Care

• The Coughlan Judgment. Campaign meetings on NHS care during early 2003 focused on the unlawful practice of local authorities and health authorities forcing elderly and disabled patients to sell their homes to pay for nursing care.

• Ombudsman & Parliamentary Pressure. In February 2003—just weeks before this meeting—the Health Service Ombudsman (Ann Abraham) published a major report confirming that the NHS had wrongly denied free continuing care to thousands of patients, sparking heightened parliamentary scrutiny led by MPs like Paul Burstow and grassroots campaigners like Robin Lovelock. Because informal committee room briefings and lobby meetings in Room W1 are not recorded in Hansard (unlike formal Select Committee hearings or Chamber debates), any surviving personal accounts or photographs of that specific day would likely reside within Robin Lovelock's archived case files on NHSCare.info.

NHS Care Meeting on 9th July 2003 ...

The meeting you are referring to was an NHS Continuing Healthcare Campaign presentation held in Room W1 of the House of Commons (Westminster) on July 9, 2002. [1, 2, 3] The presentation focused on NHS Continuing Care funding and highlighted how hundreds of thousands of elderly and vulnerable people were being improperly denied free, long-term NHS care under UK law. [1]

Key Meeting Details

Chair & Parliamentary Sponsor: Paul Burstow, who was then the Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam and a prominent campaigner on older people's care (later becoming Care Services Minister). Earlier that year, Burstow had released a high-profile report revealing that 360,000 nursing home residents had been "cheated" out of free NHS care. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Key Presenters: The briefing was organized by Robin Lovelock and Derek Cole. Inspired by a newspaper clipping of Paul Burstow's work, Lovelock and Cole had recently launched the campaign platform NHSCare.info to fight the systemic withholding of Continuing Care funding following the landmark Coughlan legal ruling. [1, 2]

Audience Attendees:

Jo Brand (the celebrated comedian, writer, and former psychiatric nurse) attended the session to support the cause.

Other prominent figures in attendance included the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, who sat right next to Jo Brand during the briefing. The audience also consisted of several members of parliament, peers, and health care campaign advocates.

The event served as a major catalyst for the national campaign, which ultimately forced an Ombudsman’s report in 2003 and a formal review of the criteria used by the government to fund long-term care. [1, 2]

Questions to ask Google AI (Gemini) ...

Here is the sort of question that I asked Google AI using the chrome Browser on my Grumpy Old Windows 7 PC:

"details of nhs care meeting in westminster on day of iraq war vote on subject of nhs care chaired by paul burstow in room w1 with audience including jo brand, robin lovelock ?"

WARNING: I see answers to the same question can vary minute to minute, and hour to hour, even they still look OK. Goodness Knows what answers you will get from alternative AI engines, like ChatGPT, or even Google, in these days of business take-overs and change. BUT, I must admit, AI like this certainly saves a lot of time. I hate wasting time ;-)

Maybe this page will get updated - if and when I have the time ;-)

Robin Lovelock in Sunninghill.

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