Did a bit more work on this one today trying to figure out what was going on with the brakes .
I think the main issue was the cables were sticking and the ferrules inside the lever's had split .
So I set about changing the cables including the hidden rear one . I always pull the old inner cable out first .
Then feed the new inner down the old outer before removing the old outer .
And then slide the new outer along the inner cable that is still run through the frame .
As I was doing the cabling I noticed that the bars were slightly out of shape !