Diana, I and the family do well during a month of contrasting weather in which the decoration of the Hayling View and landscaping of its gardens nears completion. Our trusts and investments also thrive in contrast to the widespread economic and industrial gloom characterised by falling shares, currencies and growing unemployment as the UK is de-industrialised by Thatcher; now embattled in her mission to defeat the unions and resist South African sanctions which aim seems doomed as her ally Reagan is over-ruled by congress. Riots at home and bomb attacks elsewhere threaten stability and social order as major disasters and ‘accidents’ are all too often but the USSR/USA arms limitation talks seem to be bearing fruit as political parties divide on nuclear disarmament
September comes to an end as an unusual month, weather-wise; one of the coldest, yet sunniest on record. After the early frosts and cold winds in the month during which we had the coldest September day since the 1950s, we then had a fortnight of fine sunny weather such that only the mists and rapidly shortening days reminded us that it is not summer. We have all been well, and Daniel’s eye blurriness has only turned out to be strain. He is finding both me and his school rather exacting over his work these days and is now expected to do 2 ¼ hrs homework nightly but, part from annoyance over him damaging his new brief case, we are getting on well together and he does try (sometimes!) . Steve was a visitor to join Daniel and clean the pool for swimming and Daniel was visiting Claire ‘to listen to records and watch TV’ . Debbie started her first year as a ‘Junior’ and has added ‘Brownies’ to her ballet and horse riding and loves all manner of play and activities with me still reading her ‘The Country Companion’. Della is quite a little person now and a persistent, if frustrating, conversationalist.
They are 14, 7 and 2 years old respectively and appreciate the arrival of a very old and graceful Rocking Horse, dubbed ‘Noble’. Diana and I took the children to the Kimbolton ‘Statty Fayre’ and we are ‘fighting the flab’ and both on diets with me down to 13st 12lbs from 14st 1lb so far. This was well timed for us to attend the Kimbolton Ball together, a evening excitement of dressing formally and arousing neighbourhood interest before collecting Nigel and Lynne Smith from Hail Weston for the drive ro The Castle where I met Roger Britain and others as the Jazz band played. Relationships were suffering as Diana was often wanting to go off to St Neots with friends for her coffee sessions and often declined coffee at home despite our very scenic gardens I have been making good progress towards the funding of the children’s accumulation trusts and will need to finish them shortly, after hearing from the TSB. We stand to be successful in half of our applications and these will be greatly scaled down. The rest of the family are a bit remote at the moment. My parents Grace and Fred did visit on their way to visit Freda and Alf in Cornwall, where Alf has had his shoulder cancer operated on but we did not hear from them since. I arranged a Marshall visits to demonstrate the new Range Rover Vogue, which I might get whilst trading in my Jaguar. Work on The Hayling View marches on and I have wired the last circuits of the burglar alarm and nearly finished the decoration after stripping the paint from windows and doors and re-painting them. The builders are finishing re-building the garden wall and then I willhave only the tarmacking of the drive to organise. The riverside gardens are coming on – fully connected together with paths and nearly all of the excess vegetation cleared steadily by our gardener after which we appreciate the successful plantings. The view from the house is much improved and the site of our future lawn quite visible. I make a good purchase of a battery drive TV and VCR for both use in both house and boat, and some fire extinguishers. After the cooler weather sent steam rising from our swimming pool which had been elevated to 83degC I switched off the swimming pool heating for the winter. After finishing the house, I removed guttering from the outer garage and applied the first coast of Sadolin Extra to the boards, then working on the eaves with Daniel’s help before painting the outer garage doors. I drove off to Prickwillow Pottery to collect our two new house plaques to complete the task. Nigel visited for a look around The Hayling View, was very impressed and provided some alarm parts and, as if to seal the transition, 39 Gordon Road was sold for £42,995. The otter hunt passed by along The Hayling Way, a rare occurrence these days.. The journals I still get from the computer industry shows most of firms still suffering in an overly competitive market and ACT and Amstrad are heading for their come-uppance, if I am any judge. The stock exchange is sliding and may go down much further, which would change me from a seller to a buyer of shares. The economy is still bad news with yet more unemployed – 3 ¼ million on govt. figures, or 4 million, disregarding cosmetic massaging of the figures and there is a record trade deficit to boot. In the meantime, our financial hatches are battened down and we expect the economic decline but my private placement EHP shares acquired for £18,750 are now worth £60,000 but the TSB state sell-off hopelessly oversubscribed. 1400 jobs go at The Bedford Truck plant, Vauxhall cut 1,000 jobs in Luton and intend to reduce total manning by a third and Austin-Rover are still losing money. More bad industrial news as Thatcher’s stooge, Graham Day, sacks Rover Group’s long term Chairman Harold Musgrove and the pound falls to a new low and trade figures are terrible. At least, if sterling falls, industry can start exporting manufactures again, now that the bottom has fallen out of the oil market ($14 a barrel at the moment) but £600m will be spent on filters for 3 out of 12 coal-fired power stations. Thatcher’s Autumn ‘re-shuffle’ just brings in junior turks to help with propaganda for her government is also selling of British Airways, and now her new stooge now seems set on closing BL’s Cowley works as her latest assault on British manufacturing industry The new Dartford crossing will be a Toll bridge after Thatcher refuses to invest government money, Sterling plunges despite Bank of England support. Elsewhere, World bourses fall, with Tokyo and London experiencing record one-day falls and inflation is down to 2.4%, but the pressure on Sterling eases today with West Germany supporting the Bank of England’s efforts. The loveable TV and farming personality Ted Moult shot himself today, after a poor harvest . At least Thatcher is declining at the polls and, barring accidents, should get defeated at the next election. This as the TUC hears from Labour leader Neil Kinnock and protest motions about Murdoch’s treatment of the Print Unions, the calls for a statutory minimum wage and Labour pledge to remove US nuclear weapons from the UK and expel Derek Hatton and the eight Liverpool militants as Neil Kinnock carries all before him at The Labour Conference and Labour want BT and British Gas re-nationalised . The SDP conference calls for the cancellation of Trident, David Owen addresses the LibDem conference on arms control and The Stockholm Security conference agrees a formula for arms verification East/West arms control still heading the news with the LibDems narrowly coming out for a non-nuclear defence policy. Dr David Owen exhorts his SDP Conference followers to be ready for a snap election. The Dow Index suffered its largest ever daily fall as riots continue in Bristol and also in Norway where the visit of Thatcher is inflammatory over her South African policies more repression in South Africa. Serious unrest in South Africa today as Police tried to ban a funeral for 21 blacks and they fought over the bodies, which was obscene . more tension in South Africa as The Archbishop of Canterbury enthrones Desmond Tutu as the new Archbishop of Cape Town and both he and Dr Robert Runcie defy censorship and make their opinions known. poor European compromise over sanctions against South Africa as 13 die and hundreds are missing after an underground gold mine fire in the Transvaal , black mining casualties fail to get treated in ‘whites-only’ South African hospitals Winnie Mandela addresses the grieving Kinross mine mourners with claims of poor mine safety for blacks of terrorist incidents in Jordon and The Lebanon and Ulster but the main news was of Reagan seeming to lose his stand against South African sanctions, as Thatcher’s ally, because an 80% Congress vote stands to rule out his veto. Reagan’s latest South African sanction veto will be overturned by Congress and he has attracted the ire of Archbishop Tutu for dual standards because Reagan had acted against Libya and Nicaragua already. a gang of 40 white youths attacked two black youths in an appalling racial display of violence in Mitcham, Surrey and the UK government introduces visas for black commonwealth countries in a very controversial change of policy. Prisoner riots take place about overcrowding at Risley and in the St Pauls area of Bristol and are supressed by the heavy-handed police. Nigel Mansell wins the Portuguese Grand prix but there are recriminations after the Heysel Stadium riot flow with Belgian warrants issued and English football is in trouble again after violence at the Bradford vs Leeds match. Cabinet Minister’s daughter, Olivia Channon, dies of a drug and drink overdose and it claimed that a third of students have tried heroine or similar. Elesewhere, there is a bomb attack in Paris with Lebanese terrorists the suspects. and a new explosion hits the Paris Police HQ. The aftermath of the Los Angeles air disaster rages with over 70 dead and now a large Soviet ocean-going liner, SS Admiral Nakhimov, with 1,000 people on board, has been sunk by collision. The Karachi PANAM hijack ending in tragedy as the four Arab terrorists killed 16 passengers and shot 120 others with machine guns as Palestinian security forces prepared to storm it. Another atrocity, this time in Turkey, where terrorists killed 21 in a synagogue, then heavy fighting in Beirut kills 14 and injures 200 . Before the month ends, Paris and Chile survive more terrorist attacks with General Pinochet is lucky to escape with his life. In Ireland, a top UVF Loyalist is killed by Republicans and then Ulster police in trouble over fatal ‘rubber bullet’ killing, but a new Ulster bombing campaign is thwarted by a brave constable carrying the device away. An earthquake at Kalamata, Greece, kills 17 and injures many more The US/USSR have a war or words over spying claims and the US/USSR powers engineer a face-saving Daniloff spy swap deal..