Percy Meyer, the St Neots District Alliance Chairman
Percy Meyer, the St Neots District Alliance Chairman

After time admiring my newly turved games lawn, I impress in my selection interview for the District Council candidature with local SDP/Liberal Alliance Chairman Percy Meyer and then lunch with the family at the Croxton Happy Eater before some Christmas shopping. Garry Kasparov wins the final game of the series and thus retains his World Chess Championsip title against Anatoly Karpov as more riots take place this time in Jerusalem and Britain tells the UN that the Israelis have used excessive force in quelling unrest in the Gaza Strip

Diana had decided that today was the day to let us all lay in and so we slept on and only got up at 8.00am. Then an early postman caught out Diana who set off the alarm by accident when rushing to open up the door. Breakfast for all of us, except Daniel, who was still sleeping, then he scrambled down to join us afterwards. I sat around in my pyjamas for a while, reading both Investors Chronicle and the weekend FT, until I began to run out of time. The powerful temptation was to keep looking out of the window at our games lawn turf, which has made quite a difference to the view. Closer up, it is not perfectly level and the turves and joins are quite muddy, but it will improve tremendously with time. A rush to get hair washed, shaved and dressed for the drive to town and my appointment with the SDP/Liberal meeting. It was the selection and adoption meeting for the Huntingdon District Council Alliance candidates and my stint was from 11.00 until midday. I was shown almost straight in and interviewed by the Cambridge Regional Chairman of the SDP and Liberal parties, Percy Meyer, as the St Neots District Alliance Chairman and a lady also representing the Liberals with them.

The latter had been Derek Nicholls organiser and was known to me from the time he visited Comart in the past. The meeting went well and they were visibly impressed, but still had to do their duty by asking me the awkward questions, ‘Am I an undischarged bankrupt? Any criminal record greater than X years? Any aspect of my personal life liable to be exploited by my political opponents?’ etc etc. Soon the 3 ward candidates will have to be made public. Home and then out again, taking the entire family for lunch at the Croxton Happy Eater. A nice meal, but Della was a bit naughty. Afterwards, I dropped the girls off and then Daniel and I went into St Neots for our Christmas shopping. We both bought presents for Di and Daniel bought a record each for Gaz and Paul. Then we stopped off at ‘The pub games shop’ and picked up leaflets on all-weather snooker tables, as we are thinking of having one by the new games lawn. Home for tea and then Dan and I planned this new purchase, deciding that only the full sized, largest table would do (!) This evening, I made the decision to take Diana out to the pictures for the first time in a long while. News today is of the Liberal Council being difficult in accepting the new Alliance name as the title of the party, but David Steel warns them to stop bickering over small details. Willie Whitelaw has left hospital for the weekend. He said he felt ‘extremely lucky’ to have escaped lightly from the stroke and significantly avoided any comment on his political future. An exciting finish to the world chess championships, as the holder, Garry Kasparov, wins the final game of 23, draws the series and thus retains his title against Anatoly Karpov. More riots, this time in Jerusalem, as Palestinians took to the streets in the east of the city. Britain has told the UN that Israel had used excessive force in quelling unrest in the Gaza Strip.