For the hell of it I installed a clean copy of Ubuntu 10.04 on a new drive which has python QT4 version 4.7.2 as standard. Using the eePe DEB file to install eePe I suffered the same crash as before. Leaving things as they were, the next step was to upgrade the operating system to 10.11. That gave me Python QT4 version 4.7.4 and that sorted out the issues without having to reinstall eePe.
Off topic - I haven't the time or the inclination to 'upgrade' to 64 bit.. Yes I am running 32 bit on a 64 bit platform. The hassle in starting from scratch again just isn't on. So until something turns up that allows me to change over to a 64 bit operating system without having to spend hours on it, I will stay with what works.
Thanks to you both for your input. At least we know what the problem and the cure is.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)