Day spent in Westminster
Day spent in Westminster

Westminster meetings with NEDO and some local sightseeing before home to some family fun as the country still experiences dock and miners’ strikes and British Steel rejects coal deliver quotas

Up earlier this morning, as I was due to go to London for a NEDO meeting. A hair wash for the first time in days and drive to Huntingdon Station on a very pleasant day – warm but with cool clear air. A train journey swatting up on MSX and then a taxi drive to the Millbank Tower and lifts to the 15th floor for a 10.30am meeting. A difficult meeting with Nigel Searle of Sinclair very reticent on the needs for standards and dismissive of the Japanese threat through use of old technology. Several inputs from the Consumer Electronic Industries and great differences of perspective on the whole issue, which made conclusions tough. Further meetings and a sub-committee would help. I did manage, after the meeting, to get Nigel’s help on my DTI tariff submission – as they did in the end decide to set up manufacture in Korea.

A nice buffet lunch and then, a little bored, I walked along Millbank to the smallest London Park alongside the Palace of Westminster. Then over to Westminster Cathedral and spent the afternoon visiting the tombs of historically important souls. I was particularly impressed by the tombs of Kings and Queens, Poets and Scientists. Also by the heraldry of the Chapel where the Knights of the Garter had their seats – the Kings and Queens most of all. Back to Kings Cross by tube and on to Huntingdon by train writing up these last days activities in my journals on the way. Home, a bit later than intended, to tea and croquet with Daniel and then an evening resting and watching the television. During my absence today the answering machine received 21 calls! But only half a dozen left messages. News tonight of a near settlement to the dock strike, threatened by British Steel’s opposition to any agreed quota of coal deliveries between the ITSC and NUM Unions. The Labour Party presents the first outlines of their new economic policies with plenty of nationalisation and import and currency controls. The European Airbus Consortium win their first large US order from Pan Am and the pound sterling fell to a record low of $1.268. All this whilst the coal talks struggle on with difficulty.