General Election Called – After I managed a little work in my office, I was carrying on working around Mr Larkin as he demolishes my old landing stage as well as using the dinghy to start cleaning The Lady’s hull and then taking Debbie to the saddlers for some riding boots and a crop. Thatcher comes back from Chequers, visits HM The Queen and calls a General Election, feeling confident of victory as the funerals of the dead IRA men take place today
A late night, an early awakening and it was raining, which event we had not seen for some time. Pleased that I had just finished my boat painting the day before as I got showered, shaved and dressed. Della had been awake during the night and kept Debbie awake in the bargain, so she was allowed to sleep in a little. All together eventually at breakfast and a meal enjoyed. To my office after, where I read a number of magazines from my in-tray, but it failed to get me in the mood for office work. The rain having stopped, I went out to see Mr Larkin and helped him demolish the old landing stage opposite No.39. Sad to see a very effective structure go in this way. He also dug out the outfall and expressed consternation at the task of coping with the spring, surface drainage, and occasional sewage that it composed. Pete and I salvaged and sorted a range of timber and scaffold poles and then Peter continued after I went in to lunch.
A nice, but salad meal (and I weigh less than 13st 4lbs now!) and then watched the TV news to relax a while, for my legs have been aching incessantly after these past weeks’ efforts. At this time Mrs Thatcher was at Buckingham Palace to seek the agreement for an election on June 11th, which was announced soon afterwards this afternoon. When Debbie came home from school, with her friend Helen, to play, I took them both in the Range Rover to Alconbury Weston to the saddlers, where I bought Debbie a pair of riding boots and a riding crop as a belated birthday present. Debbie off to Brownies afterwards, Daniel came home and was straight out in his boat, and I launched the dinghy and used it to start cleaning one side of The Lady’s hull. Fed the birds and put away a host of items displaced by today’s work, before going in to find Daniel with his friend Paul, not having done his homework and I had to tell him off accordingly. News this evening was full of the election call and programmes were devoted to it. The Tories are riding high on the latest opinion polls, but a month is a long time. The ringleaders in the recent football hooliganism trial were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, and the ‘trial’ has opened in France of Klaus Barbie, the German Nazi leader, who is upset by the presumption of guilt that pervades the media. The first funerals of the IRA dead took place today, with a definite paramilitary emphasis. After a cool, blustery, but mainly dry day, more rain is forecast for tomorrow as the weather deteriorates.