Pleasant family start to the day and then to Cambridge in the Range Rover to scour shops for food containing no ‘E-number’ additives and then back to supervise Daniel schoolwork with Debbie insisting on joining in! Chancellor Lawson’s Budget today reduced Income Tax and seemed to be designed to curry favour with a possible June election in mind as the PC Blakelock murder trial jury considers its verdict
Awoke a little before Di and teased her until her rising time of 6.15am, in a classic game of ‘slap and tickle’. Di then got the drinks more quickly than usual and the girls came to join me in bed in the meanwhile and so we had our drinks together. Down to breakfast and Rice Crispies was on the menu today, with toast as the only other choice. After breakfast, I sat and read three stories to Daniella, as a reward for eating up her meal and then I went out to see Pete, the gardener, with my instructions for the work outstanding. He was to cut down a large bough of the hawthorn tree (by our bedroom window) today, so that it would no longer overhang the swimming pool.
I just had time to phone Marshalls of Cambridge, but they could not confirm that they had the oil-sensor unit for the Daimler. I also booked Friday to take the Range Rover back to Marshalls of Bedford to have an accumulation of three faults to be looked at. Off in the Range Rover to Cambridge, once Daniel and Deborah had gone to school, but the rest of us were delayed at road works on the way, losing 20 minutes in the process. Arrived late, but still met Di’s Mum and she looked after Della whilst Di and I scoured the food shops for food items free of E numbers (artificial stabilisers, preservatives and colourings that can be harmful). Lunch at the Copper Kettle, where Della ate her food well, after being deprived of a snack at 10.00am. Home in time for Diana to rendezvous with her friends at Linda’s house, as I settled down with my new photographs to look at and the Budget to listen to on the radio/TV. Eventually, tea time and then time with Daniel on mathematics, with Debbie insisting on joining in the process!! News today is of the Budget speech. Lawson delivered what he called ‘a prudent and cautious budget’ and the City expects a 1% cut in interest rates. Neil Kinnock retorted that the budget was ‘little to do with the general good; more to do with the general election’. Allowances are up just in line with the statutory rate of inflation, with no special increase in the lower thresholds to relieve the poverty trap. Income tax basic rate is down from 29p to 27p and there is no change in the excise duties on drinks, tobacco and petrol. The majority of the excess revenue money has been used to reduce the government debt. The priority seems to be on reducing inflation, rather than tackling unemployment or the balance of payments. The speculation at Westminster is of the budget paving the way for a June election. The City appreciated the budget and marked up the stock exchange and the pound sterling. A 5p cut in the tax on lead-free petrol for environmental reasons will equate the prices of both types of fuel and may encourage its use. Betting tax on on-course betting has been abolished, to encourage punters to actually attend the race meeting courses. Admiral Poindexter of the US, a former member of the National Security Council, has again refused to testify in front of a Congressional committee. More discussion and dispute over the High Court decision to sterilise the sub-normal girl, with many seeing a dangerous precedent in the decision. The Jury is out on the PC Blakelock murder trial and is staying in a hotel to facilitate their deliberations. And so a pretty futile budget, something of a non-event, with the window-dressing for electoral purposes painfully obvious. I only hope the electorate can see further than the end of their noses and reject the sham.