I view of all of the kind advice and time given here, here is a bit of an update:
I studied Sparey's book which is excellent.
I reground the cutting tool carefully, having made a tool rest for the grinder!
I stripped down the lathe cross slide etc.
I managed to straighten the wobbly cross slide lead screw so that it rotates true by eye, and tightened up everything correctly.
I eventually discovered (Thanks Peter!) that the top slide swivel locking pins were fitted in the wrong holes (swopped over) and the top slide was not gripping properly as a consequence. This was causing all sorts of mayhem as you can imagine.
After all of this I managed to cut a test piece to within 2 hundredths of a mm, which was pleasing.
Finally I visited Warco on Saturday at their open day and have purchased a WM240 along with some bells and whistles.
The reason for this treachery is that I have not detailed what else is missing from the ML10, it would take a long time!
I have learned a lot through this exercise, and plan to apply it to the new machine.
I am thinking of having a go at Alex Whittakers Firefly engine in due course.
Regards,
Charles