Visit away from the nearly completed pool excavation on another cold and damp day to the Hertford Record Office and Local Studies Dept. as Diana struggled with a snuffly Della and now Daniel is ill with it as the new DTI minister Paul Channon, announces talks for general Motors to take over Leyland Truck and Land Rover, the Defence Select Committee want more government witnesses and Sterling collapses again as the oil price plummets
A fair night’s sleep only after Diana had the bedroom radiator on yesterday and it took a long while for the bedroom to cool down. My mind active also, after pondering on my family history research and planning the next action to take. Sound asleep when my morning tea arrived at 7.00am, but a chance to see the paper for a while before a dull breakfast of toast and fruit juice, where boiled egg would have been more welcome. Quickly washed and dressed afterwards and, pausing only to give Di a building society pass book and for us both to sign the latest gilt stocks transfer form, I then set off by car to continue my family history research and to get away from the continuing disruption of the swimming pool excavation.
Arriving first in Hertford Public Record Office at 9.30am, I stay there both in the Record Office and Local Studies Dept. all day. Notes of my findings are in my family history file, but I managed to find out much more about John and Ann Broad’s family and their life together in Watford. I have still to track the Broads at the time of the 1841 Census and this is key to finding John’s birth date and hence tracing his ancestry back to Bermondsey. Finally, at 3.30pm I left for Hertford town centre to get a couple of bars of chocolate for ‘lunch’ and to post my forms to de Zoete as I could not get into town in time. Home for tea at 5.00pm, which was a nice cooked meal. Daniel has been ill in bed today, but Debbie was well enough for school and I read her a story. Poor Della is still ill and snuffly. The pool excavation continues apace, with most done, but even more mess on the grass verge. News tonight of the confirmation in the Commons by Paul Channon, new DTI Minister, of discussions taking place for General Motors to take over Leyland Truck and Land Rover divisions. The Labour opposition seize on this loss of capability, after £300M of government development money and a new range of truck designs in train. Meanwhile a compromise is being offered by the government to Defence Select Committee in the form of Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary, but the Committee may still insist on Colette Bowe and Bernard Ingham, and the Westland affair will be on a knife edge tomorrow as the Committee meets. 20+ Tory MPs, led by Teddy Taylor, revolted today and voted against more CAP money for the butter mountains. Scandal today as an attack by 5 police is reported on three youths and they are protected by a conspiracy of silence over the past years. They were in one of three police transit vans and it is not possible to tell which. Sterling falls 2 ½ cents down on the day, as rumours spread of a collapsing oil price and an OPEC determination to force Britain to lead North Sea producers to come to heal. The government still maintains its free-market, non-interventionist stance, which is a recipe for further collapse of confidence as N. Sea production oil costs are far higher than Arabia. The weather has been bitterly cold and damp today and is forecast to get colder still. The river is well up, but we should be all right until the end of the excavations.