Black Week for British Micros
Black Week for British Micros

Combining press interviews about the declining prospects of British Microcomputer companies with consideration about buying some woodland and I think I am convinced it is a good idea as battles with the Yorkshire Miners flare up again and, in Ulster,  the last of three UDR brothers to survive assassination is shot dead but even that is eclipsed by the worst African famine in memory

Diana leaves me to lay in a little this morning, but I still wake up and wander downstairs to collect my tea. Up with The Financial Times and most of it read before a breakfast of hot toast and marmalade. The paper finished and up at 8.30am to hear Yesterday in Parliament on the radio whilst getting washed and dressed. The concerted attempts of the back bench conservative MPs to interrupt and disrupt Neil Kinnock’s speech seem to have succeeded and the government made light of the censure debate – even when record unemployment was announced the same day. Out to feed the ducks and no eggs, for they had not been put away last night. The doves were very hungry this morning on a warm sunny day for the time of year. To the office and to return my phone calls of yesterday. I missed Martin Isherwood, but recorded my advice on his answering machine. Attempts to contact Management Today, my accountants and forestry advisors, and Graham Clifton of Transam, were totally unsuccessful. At 11.00am, back to the house for coffee and was delayed by me having to play back my televised appearance to Joan, our cleaner, who insisted on seeing it!

Out then with Diana and the baby to St Neots. I had received my Alexandra allotment refund today and dividend payments for my Consols and so I paid the cheques into my building society accounts. With Alexandra Workwear shares at £ 1.37p vs £1.00 allotment levels, I have earned 400 x 0.37, or £148 for three days loss of interest on the £40,000 capital. At the annualised 10% interest rates, this was more than worthwhile – even considering the tax treatment as equal: whereas capital gain only attracts half of the percentage tax (30% vs 60%). To the fish shop for a much simpler transaction to buy three small herrings for my tea and then to help Diana by looking after Daniella whilst she selected the week’s supermarket shopping. Off to The Little Chef for lunch, but first a drive up the A1 to the Monks Wood area, north of Huntingdon. Ekins had advised me of a 65 acre wood, of ash and elm and some fur, fronting the A1 and the area looks appealing. Home after our lunch and back to the office. A hard session raising my contacts by telephone and an even harder time fielding two female press interviewers from The Guardian and Management Today. Both are interested in business failures amongst British micro manufacturers and Maggie Brown, the former, challenging about lack of Comart marketing skills that led Comart to fail to emulate ACT! Exciting stuff and by the end of the afternoon no correspondence typed again. I did speak to Roger Brittain, my accountant, and an executive from Fountain Forestry and conveyed all of my valid interest in the Huntingdon Wood. They will act for me and I might well settle a deal of my tax liabilities before April and the end of the tax year. I pack up, drink afternoon tea, and then put the ducks away after feeding them. I am relieved that I can now finish my working day at 5.00pm and still have daylight left for the ducks. In to my herring tea and then a little time with Daniel and Deborah, before an evening reading and updating my journal. I have received such a fair number of computer journals that the task is onerous; I was in Computer Weekly again today. News tonight of deadlock in the coal talks. Last ditch attempts collapsed tonight and the NUM executive tonight travelled back to their regions. Tempers flared in Yorkshire and 1,500 pickets surprised police and stoned vehicles, where only 29 miners are working at the coal mine concerned. A memorial to WPC Yvonne Fletcher, placed outside the Libyan embassy, was erected by the Police Memorial Trust with the attendance of all of the political leaders. In Northern Ireland, Mr Graham, a part-time UDR soldier, was shot dead whilst driving a school bus. He had been awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours List after surviving an attempt on his life in 1980 and losing two brothers to terrorist assassins. The African famine is the worst disaster that the world has ever seen, according to the UN agency