Bitterly cold day working on my finances and looking after my family as I plan to collect my sister Freda from Paddington tomorrow as 100,000 refugees abandon Bhopal and Thatcher gets a hard time in the Commons in public and from her own back-benchers in private over tax reforms
Another groggy start to the day and preparations the same as yesterday. This morning the ducks were not around, but the pigeons were very hungry for more seed. Still no main cheque from de Zoete but, at the office, Computer Weekly has my letter in it. This is a lucky preference for it is the last issue until the New Year. I phone Gerald Chadwick of Vintners and still no reply from my previous family solicitor, David Christy, on my children’s trusts. Then Roger Brittain to give him the news (or lack of it) and ask his advice on a few personal tax matters. He has just returned to work after an operation to remove a ‘nodule’ from his vocal chords and has had several weeks rest and recuperation. No luck returning phone calls to NEDO Consumer EDC Secretary, Roy Fuscone or June Hamilton and so I leave messages to ring me again. Time to read the papers and catch up on my journal before taking Diana out to a Little Chef lunch.
Our customary diet burger and prawn salad sandwich, this time, between tomato soup and ice cream dishes. Home via St Neots town where Diana posts a letter to my mother and drops in on The Trader newspaper to offer our old pram to a lady who had hers stolen. Home and to the office and the afternoon typing two letters of reply to accountant, Roger Brittain, on data for a tax return and to de Zoete asking for my 1/8th million pounds back. Tea of steak and kidney pie after tending the birds and lighting a log fire, then an hour back at the office after sorting out my papers. News today of last night’s Conservative 1922 Back Bench Committee being addressed by Margaret Thatcher. Though she got the normal standing ovation, she could not offer them any satisfaction on their concerns about local government reorganisation and unemployment. In the House of Commons, The Chancellor scotched rumours of a tax on pension lump sums, but still seems set on taxing institutional funds for pensions. The government Chief Whip, whose wife was killed in the Brighton Bomb explosion, took his place in The Commons for the first time. In the coal strike, Arthur Scargill appears in court on obstruction charges, following his arrest a while ago on the picket lines. The TUC gets the support of the NUM for a resumption of talks, but the coal board seems unwilling to join in. Mike Nolan of the Bucks Fizz pop group has stayed in a coma after yesterday’s coach crash and an operation today. The weather still bitterly cold today, but the rain clouds are rolling in tonight. I talk to Freda and Dad on the telephone tonight and finalise my plans to collect Freda from Paddington station tomorrow and drive her to Bury St Edmunds to visit my parents. Main news; 100,000 refugees are leaving India’s Bhopal in a new safety panic.