A morning in the office making arrangements and writing speeches as the rain pours down until lunchtime when the doves are dry enough to feed and then together with the family at tea and Daniel and Debbie happy but Daniella full of cold with puffy eyes as the miners prepare to call off their strike and the Tories fall well behind labour in the polls with a minister needing a police escort
A settled night’s sleep and awake to morning tea and the paper as the rain pours down outside. Up to breakfast and all down together for the first time in a while with us all a little better. Up to get washed and dressed and out briefly to the ducks where five eggs in a duck hose becoming very mucky with the droppings. I leave the doves as they seem too wet to fly down and walk along to the office to start a full day’s work. No telephone messages of note and so down to the task of sending off securities to complete the sale transactions that Hoare Garett and de Zoete & Bevan undertook for me. Also to send back a recently issued Barclaycard that was surplus to my requirements. Then to call Martin Isherwood and the best part of an hour helping him correct my dictated BMMG Press Statement script, with some impatience on my part. Then to call Geoff Lynch to ask him to record my forthcoming TV South interview and to hear at length also of his fears about the Kode reorganisation and groan over the poor 1985 sales performance and chances of hitting targets. I cannot agree that Peter Smith really sees John Lamb’s promotion as a way of compromising him. Then over to Di for a morning coffee, only to find her in town with Daniella and Daniel to look after her in the car whilst she does the weeks shopping. Joan therefore gets a good chance to do the housework. I make myself a coffee and then back to deal with a few items of correspondence, typing up a biographical summary and write to accept the NCC speaking engagement in September. Home for lunch and then back to it and the afternoon writing to the SDP High-Tech (nology) Chairman and printing out the PITCOM paper to accompany it and also be the model for my Industry Policy speeches. By dark the task at last completed and I clear up the office and go back to the house. I had fed the doves at lunchtime as it had been dry for an hour or two so that they were now quite able to fly down. I got the ducks away tonight quite happily, but had to use the last of the food and we will have to go to Biggleswade tomorrow. All together to tea. Debbie had a good day at school and Daniel is full of fun again – even too rumbustious. Daniella is still very full of cold with puffy eyes and nose streaming. At least she is now lively with it and sits up in her cot grabbing at Diana’s food as she tries to bring it from bowl to mouth. After tea, back to the office for a bit more work until all complete. I now have to write my speeches and prepare the notes, which both COMPETA and the NCC would like to have.
News tonight of the death toll rising to 9 in the Irish police station mortar attack as the RUC pledge to bring the attackers to justice. Thirty seven are injured and all parties condemn the atrocity. The worst injuries were due to a direct hit on a temporary portakabin that was being used as a canteen. Politicians fall over one another to condemn the attack and call for measures, including the death penalty. The miners’ union looks set to call off the coal strike at a delegates meeting on Sunday. The Coal Board will not negotiate and the NUM will not sign away their rights in coal board document. An opinion poll by MORI tonight shows the Labour Party ahead of the Conservatives by 40% to 38% with 2/3rds thinking that Britain has become more divided under Mrs Thatcher. The Home Secretary, Leon Britain, needed a police escort to charge through demonstrators to speak at a university today and the students claim that the police over-reacted. The weather was cooler today with some rain and will continue unsettled over the weekend.