Closely managing Comart Group affairs, preparing the ground for a meeting with Thatcher and cruising to Cambridge on a hot and sticky month for a fine visit and then back down the Cam to Upware as the film of the Hiroshima bomb aftermath is released, Beirut erupts, there are Texas Typhoons, Bizarre French lorry attacks on pubs, looting and arson in Sri Lanka and film legend David Niven dies in Switzerland. There is political murder and riots in the Philippines but we are comfortable and safe on our boat in the Fens, as the month ends
A hot and sticky month of weather; combining close management of Comart Group affairs and setting the groundwork for closer government discussions whilst working on and enjoying my boat, ‘The Lady’ with my son Daniel and family. The ducks are also a feature as the older ones lay regularly and the younger ones grow to maturity and would hopefully do the same. In respect of the Group, I installed Peter King as the new supremo of the Byte Shop chain and added him to the boards of all of its subsidiary company shops; giving him a fairly free reign to tighten up their administration, review their manning and facilities and tackle the main and varied management and personnel issues arising from our takeover and their former history as a failing organisation and subsequent bankruptcy. I was working with Geoff Lynch to help install similarly disciplines and expand his facilities and staff to address his growth and opportunities at Xitan. I had become aware that I was not therefore spending enough time on the ‘home farm’ of Comart Computers and so the month saw me in many meetings with senior executives helping to formulate plans and strategies to deal with their growth problems. Overall, we had seen good progress on turnover and profitability during a month where seasonally it was expected to be quiet with losses. With regard to industry leadership, the BMMG was getting stronger and stronger in terms of its membership and influence as government was becoming more interested in the microcomputer industry doing well to overcome what was quite a serious recession outside our gates. The civil servants were on our side, we had met IT Minister Kenneth Baker and now plans were afoot to see the Prime Minister herself in the hope of influencing policies that were not just failing to encourage us, but also were also acting against our success. My views were being commonly being reported in the computer and national press with certain of my full length articles and interviews being covered in full.
In my private life, I had been enjoying my new-found boating pleasures with the family as every weekend and for the odd week we were aboard and I was also working on varnishing and protecting her during the evenings. We had cruised up to Bedford and then up the Cam and Lodes to Cambridge and had been at St Ives at the time of their Bank Holiday Monday market and Huntingdon to see the Cromwell Museum. I had taken Daniel to see two adventure films as I was monitoring temperatures and pressures on board with my new instruments. Time also with him on computers and in sailing radio controlled boats. I had been visited by Mum and Dad with Mum’s health being a constant worry. In Britain, motorcyclists were dying in the Grand Prix; The Thatcher government were embarking on ever-more controversial and divisive policy thoughts and considering corporal punishment in schools, bringing back hanging, as she personally undergoes laser treatment for her eyesight amongst concerns that she has not empowered a deputy. Scare stories of infiltration of British Leyland by political activists; MORI poll on poverty where 5 million Britons are living below what most of us feel are the levels of necessity. It also reports 76% of the country as being willing to pay higher taxes to care for them. It seems Thatcher, Parkinson, Tebbitt and Co are out of touch with public opinion after all as they cut back the social services. The papers are in critical mood over statements by Arthur Scargill and Ken Livingstone criticising Thatcher’s economic and Ireland policies. As part of her ‘get-tough policies on Ireland, an Irish kidnaping was foiled in a gun fight with Police as Anti-terrorist police were waiting for a seven-man gang. At the same time the US fundraising organisation NORAD was being welcomed in Belfast. Elsewhere, the cameraman who 38 years ago photographed the Hiroshima nuclear bomb aftermath has seen his film released after it has been kept secret. It shows horrific damage and injury to the Japanese people. There are continued hostilities in Chad, hunger in America as the recession affects the poor. An exiled African leader Joshua Nkomo returns to Zimbabwe, another Irish Republican Army activist is buried and the Building Societies again have an inflow of funds. Texas Typhoons, Bizarre French lorry attacks on pubs, there was looting and arson in Sri Lanka and film legend David Niven dies in Switzerland. There is political murder and riots in the Philippines but we are comfortable and safe on our boat in the Fens, as the month ends.