I've been going over my code line by line. Finally found something odd. And I've come to the conclusion that this is the last time I copy lines from somebody else's code.

I'm sure the line <b>PROTECT_ON</b> is the reason i can no longer use this chip.

I got lazy and copied
@ DEVICE MCLR_OFF, INTRC_OSC, WDT_ON, LVP_OFF, BOD_OFF, PWRT_ON, PROTECT_ON
from someone else's 16f88 project without actually reading what it was set to do.

I'll have to wait until next week when my new 16F88 chips get here I think that one is now toast. Lesson learnt.

Thanks to everyone who helped, I'll post updates when I resume the project.