A dry and windy day spent studying Little Paxton history in the Norris Museum Library in St Ives before home to encourage Daniel with his homework and read another Country Companion to Debbie after her ballet. Key Reagan aides have quit over the Iranian arms deal after they had been supplied via Israel and Thatcher has been using civil servants to leak anti-opposition comments as she loses a UN resolution 116 to 4 asking for Argentinian negotiations over the Falklands. The Moors murder case detectives are still searching for the two child’s bodies and interviewing Ian Brady.
A fair night and quite rested when my morning tea arrived. A milder morning and no trouble getting out washed, shaved and showered, although it was dark this morning. Have started to listen to the World Service again and it is an informative radio channel when it comes to news and current affairs. Dressed in old sports jacket and trousers, then down to breakfast via the children’s rooms. I had to send Daniel back to clear up his room, as he had left clothes all over the floor. After my wheat flakes and apple juice, I quickly read the papers, before updating some of my Little Paxton history text with information gleaned from the Enclosure Award of 1814. In the post this morning I received a letter from my Dad. Mum is still very restricted with her arm, but enjoyed receiving the letters from the children and has some more hospital appointments coming up. She will try to write by typing with one hand and I have tried to persuade Debbie to keep writing as well. Daniel is now corresponding regularly with his pen-friend in Scotland and seems to enjoy it.
As I was rushing to complete some updating before going out, Martin Hamblin of Marshalls telephoned and droned on in his inimitable way. The factory will not accept magnolia trim and we have to choose an alternative (though it may be reinstated by then). He wants another £2,000 as the rest of the 10% deposit and wants to register it D A Broad c/o Marshalls Cambridge, to cover up the fact that we are out of their dealership area (!). I accepted all this to get him off the line. A quick coffee, then out by Range Rover to make all speed to St Ives, stopping outside the Ekins auction hall, whilst I bid successfully for a £34 spindle-backed folding chair. Then across town to Waits Quay to park and spend the morning at the Norris Museum Library, transcribing a host of old news cuttings that told of the breakup of the Paxton Hall and Paxton Park Estates. At lunchtime I went to the market cafe and ate a nice meal of onion soup, roast pork and apple pie/custard to follow, to while away the hour, but I fear it will make me quite fat. Back to the Norris again for 2.00pm, but, whilst I managed to study Palaeolithic and Neolithic finds from Little Paxton Gravel Pits, and transcribe more press cuttings, I could only list half of their photographs before they closed at 4.00pm. Home quite early as a result, but it was still dark when I went out with a torch to feed the ducks and put them away. At least it was fairly dry today, but quite windy. Got Daniel moving on his homework and, when Debbie returned from ballet and had been bathed etc., read her another Country Companion. Della was a little better today and Di seemed to enjoy her trip to Cambridge and chat with her mother. The news tonight is of even more trials and tribulations with Reagan’s administration in the United States. National Security Adviser, Vice Admiral John Poindexter, a key figure in the secret Iran arms deal, and another official have quit. It seems that arms had been supplied to Iran via Israel and some of the money from the deal was said to have reached the US-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua. A Congressional enquiry is to search further for more revelations, including why the State Department was unaware of the activities of the Security Council. Mrs Thatcher has explained, for the first time, why she is insisting on the Australian MI5 case being pursued under a cloak of UK secrecy as well. There had been a row over a lobby briefing, when one of her civil servant press officers had given out unattributed rubbishing comments against the opposition, compromising the civil servants neutrality. There is also criticism of the governments selectivity in enforcing confidentiality, after a Tory parliamentary candidate, previously in the security services, briefed Chapman Pincher to assist in the publication of claims that previous MI6 chief, Hollis, was a Russian agent. The British Government had another heavy defeat in the United Nations, when a resolution was passed by 116 to 4 (Sri Lanka, Oman and Belize UK) with the US and 5 EEC countries voting against Britain, calling for Britain to enter unconditional negotiations with the Argentines. Liverpool Militant Deputy Labour Leader, Derek Hatton, has had to resign, as the county’s Labour Head Office are taking control. McLaughlin, an IRA bomber, was jailed for life after being convicted of the Chelsea bomb plot, where injury was narrowly averted by a bomb being discovered and defused. The Moors murder case detectives are still searching for the two child’s bodies and interviewing Ian Brady. A Guildford man is being questioned about the murder of three young women in Surrey. After today’s mild temperatures, torrential showers are forecast to move into this area from the North West and cooler weather with showers is in train.