More progress on The Lady today as the children enjoys the pool and the river contractor arrives and starts dredging and arranging for the steel interlock sheeting to be loaded on board via the Paper Mill wharf. After the eventual righting and flotation of The Herald of Free Enterprise it transpires that design economies prejudiced safety, an MI5 book today confirms that the service undermined the premiership of Harold Wilson and lapses in censorship show how brutal the South African regimes has been lately in attacking Zambia and repressing their own people and the Tokyo Stock Exchange record a record one day fall.
Slept well and rose to my morning tea. Showered, shaved, and down to breakfast to find Debbie tidying her room, but Daniel claiming that his knee strain was too bad to enable him to. The mail to read and PCL have provided the best quotation so far for the conservatory, at around £17K. Out to The Lady and a steady job sanding down yesterday’s varnishing and drying off the dew from the woodwork. Coffee whilst I waited for the wood to dry off completely and I briefed Pete on a few gardening jobs before the river contractor arrived. Pete is cutting back the hedge between our riverside gardens and those of Eddie and found a nest, which I take to be that of a hedge sparrow. One clutch is hatched and four eggs remain, but I fear that the mother has abandoned the nest now. The bank contractor spoke to several neighbours about further work, but I fear they are too poor to get their frontage done properly. Today I finished the vast majority of the varnishing on the superstructure and will polish the same tomorrow. Another warm and sunny day, which allowed me to make good progress.
The river contractor did some dredging today, to position his workboat by Bill’s former plot, which will be the initial place for piling. He had obtained permission from the Paper Mill to enable the interlock sheeting to be offloaded there, when it arrives, so as to be easily moved downstream to our moorings. Debbie went to Brownies tonight and had swam earlier in the pool with Amy. Clare and her friend also came round to use the pool, but Daniel claimed a bad knee. The news today is of the successful righting and floatation of the Herald of Free Enterprise. At the same time, the enquiry investigating the sinking heard evidence of appalling inefficiency and neglect in the management of the ferry and experts say that safety in roll-on-roll-off ferries had been sacrificed to economics as transverse bulkheads were not fitted to a basically unstable design. The Independent newspaper published extracts from the MI5 book today, describing how senior officials conspired to undermine former Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, in 1964 and to try to prevent his re-election. The government has started contempt of court proceedings against the paper, even though they claim that publication was crucial in the public interest. In the Commons, a statement contained implied criticism of Lord Chief Justice Gibson, as it said that he made open travel arrangements under his own identity. It is a pity to blame him, as it is a poor country where a prominent citizen has to hide his identity and travel plans – in my view it is up to the government and security forces to provide a safe regime. In South Africa, a legal lapse in the security and censorship regulations has allowed TV reporters to show the brutal and repressive actions of the security forces in suppressing demonstrations. The UK Foreign Office have now raised an official protest at the weekend’s raid into Zambia by South Africa. The US Justice Department has banned Austrian President, Kurt Waldheim, from entering America as a private citizen, until allegations of wartime involvement in Nazi atrocities are investigated. Stock exchanges around the world fell sharply today, with a record one day fall for Tokyo leading the way. Wall Street rose a little as a countervailing event.