A sunny, warm but blustery day with the good news of Peter Wilmer agreeing to stand as our County Council candidate before my first meeting of Council this afternoon where I was photographed with others and then on to see Mike Pope to plan County Council elections this evening. Tory HDC councillors are pilloried for accepting a paid visit to Paris, as I pressed them on their public car parking ban. Another large national trade deficit will lead to yet higher interest rates, athletes are supporting stricter drug bans, the police get an 8 ½ % wage rise as Thatcher keeps them sweet and the Commons Energy Committee criticises the government’s plans for ‘privatising’ the electricity industry.
Slept well and laid in a little, until awoken by Di with my morning tea. Only had time to get showered and shaved before breakfast and so I joined Daniel in his dressing gown, as I matched his attire for the meal. Then to my office, where telephone calls dominated my morning. I heard from Peter Wilmer of Great Staughton this morning, who had been persuaded to accept my suggestion that he stand as SLD candidate in the forthcoming County Council Election, and he wanted to meet me over the next week or two. I had to share this good news with Mike Pope and so I called him, and he popped round and we discussed both this and a proposal modification to local gravel extraction plans at the same time. Little time when I had finished to type out a letter to the County, objecting to the plans and even less to prepare for my first meeting of full Council in the afternoon. I just got together my comments of the past, made a few notes before lunch. A salad lunch and fruit dessert – I have put on a few pounds since the start of my holiday – and then changed and off to Pathfinder House for my meeting. First, we had a collective photograph of the Council Members outside for the ‘rogues gallery’.
This was a pleasant and friendly occasion, with a lot of the others quite nervous of the camera, but it didn’t worry me, and I could circulate and chat in a relaxed way with them. The meeting afterwards was a good one. Apart from me, Jim Lomax and his Labour colleagues also spoke up and asked questions and so did the Independent, Bertie James. I managed to get a vote on the car parking ban and nearly had a recorded one. The best session was that criticising four of the Tory Councillors for accepting a hospitality jaunt to Paris by a supplier, which was quite a scandal. Dropped round to see Mike Pope again this evening. The news today is of a further large trade deficit for the UK balance of trade for the month of June and the year’s deficit will be double the budget forecast. Now further interest rate hikes are said to be on the cards, but this will raise the currency and hence make the matter worse in my view. The British leading pole-vaulter, Mr Gutteridge, has been banned for life for taking anabolic steroids. US sprinter, Carl Lewis, has called upon other countries to be as strict with life bans. Police are to get an 8 ½ % wage rise. In the Hungerford Report on the massacre by shooting of the village people, outright arming of all police is rejected, and the local force criticised for insufficient use of VHF radios and other more efficient means of communication. The Commons Select Committee on Energy has criticised the government’s plans for ‘privatising’ the electricity industry. Today was quite sunny and warm, but with a blustery wind to cope with.