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Day at The House of Commons where Kinnock failed to finish off Thatcher in the emergency debate and then to Committee Room 17 for my last meeting of the PITCOM committee after my retirement and then my own meal in front of the TV as the news told of both Westland European dimension and the NGA’s independence both seeming to be lost
A sound night’s sleep and then up to my customary breakfast of toast and fruit juice, before getting showered and dressed. Ready in time to let in the builders and I was pleased to see the arrival of the electrician for the first time in a long while. I helped him feed the outside power cable through the duct and then chiselled away at the skirting board in the hall and formed a hole in the cushioned vinyl to make a neat job. He then set about changing round the downstairs light switches and positions, whilst the builders spent their time plastering. No sign of the telephone engineers this morning and so, after coffee, I got ready to leave for the Houses of Parliament by putting on my Huntsman suit and having morning coffee.
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A better day for Diana after a cold and frosty night which saw Debbie going to Sunday School for the first time and enjoying it after some apprehension and then Gary joining Daniel and us for lunch with them both behaving nicely before an evening reading Pepys journals and writing my own. This as Thatcher fails to impress in her press interviews after the Westland affair and the newspaper printing battle continues against Murdoch and Eddie Shah but Voyager sends back pictures of Uranus
An unaccustomed and very welcome lay in this morning and, even better, Diana had the chance to rest too. A very cold, frosty night and too late, I feared, for The Lady. With us having to switch the heating off over night, due to lack of effective controls, the house had become very cold. Debbie had wandered about looking for Di and was lucky not to have set off the alarms. I got up and helped Di look after Debbie and Della and, after a nice fried breakfast, continued with the same thing. Debbie was going to Church (Sunday School) for the first time and, after an unsettled night for her, was obviously a bit apprehensive. In the event, she thoroughly enjoyed it later in the morning and is determined to go every week.
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A difficult day with Diana, who seems depressed over the domestic disruption and lack of privacy and peace at home which has caused her to break her diet and somewhat spoiled our trip to Bedford as Rupert Murdoch successfully breaks the NGS strike, Normand Lamont replaces Leon Brittan and Thatcher’s position is very more perilous
Slept soundly after the lost sleep and tiring walking of yesterday and lay in reading a number of computer journals and other mail. Down to breakfast of melon, for a change, and finally managed to tempt Debbie to have some too. Back to bed after, to read today’s mail and the FT, before getting dressed. Diana was fretting over getting to Bedford early enough, so I took a quick trip to some very hungry doves (I didn’t feed them yesterday) and left the ducks to their own devices. Off by car, after setting the alarm system, using the new bypass circuit to leave the toilet door open for the builders.
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This was the day of Leon Brittan’s much overdue resignation, resisted by Thatcher as it puts her own future in jeopardy and gives the difficult task as all of the most able ministers do not conform to her doctrinaire beliefs. We spend today visiting Cambridge for my Jaguar service and I scan the bookshops and library and then return to collect Debbie from her party as The Orleans oil tanker collides with another ship and starts a fire storm that endangers nearby oil rigs and Murdoch reaps the whirlwind and now has a strike on his hands
After the very late retirement, slept well and woke to my morning tea and radio stories of the continuing clamour for Leon Brittan’s resignation. Also the Tory press had united under the headline ‘Brittan must go’. Up and dressed early and Mr Cheeseborough phoned to talk about our bathroom design and dropped round some information whilst I was still in the shower. Our task was to get Debbie over to Amie’s, Daniel off to school and ourselves ready to leave for Cambridge. Today we were putting in the Jaguar for its 15,000 mile service (having done 19000 odd) and, though due to get it in early, we only managed to arrive in Cambridge by 9.15am.