Meeting up with Roger Brittain and Gerard Chadwick, my family Trustees, to discuss tax and Children’s’ trust affairs and then working on a £50K tax rebate I am now due. Taking Debbie Horse riding upon the mischievous Dylan and then home to hear of the full tragedy of the Kings Cross Underground Fire which followed years of neglect. Thatcher is now introducing legislation for schools to go private and opt out of local authority in favour of central control
Awake rather early and suffered from the other night’s lack of sleep again. Made it latish for morning tea and then, was just preparing for a day’s paperwork, when my accountant, Roger Brittain, telephoned and reminded me that we were due the day in Cambridge together discussing tax and children’s trust affairs with Gerard Chadwick, my other Trustee. Was 15 minutes late to collect Roger from St Neots in the Daimler and then made up the time and arrived in Cambridge on time at 9.30am. It was a drizzly and cold, depressing morning, that turned into a cold and drizzly, depressing November day. A good meeting, in which I was advised of a few important taxation policies and criteria. We met for 90 minutes and Roger and I were home at midday.
Diana thought she had lost her handbag at last night’s parents evening and spent the morning rushing about like a maniac trying to find it. In the end, it was at home, hanging up! Poor Norma, Diana’s Mother, had arrived before lunch to find the house empty and nobody there, which came as a shock to her. This afternoon, I worked on my tax affairs and made some more phone calls about nearly £50K of taxation rebates I am due. I have tax demands of nearly £70K to pay and am annoyed that the Inland Revenue demands money and extracts interest for late payment, but is slow to make its own rebates in return. By teatime, I had agreed a plan of action and will deduct moneys owed from my payment to force the issue. An early tea of yet more salad and then I took Debbie for her horse riding lesson in Offord d’Arcy. She had Dylan, who is quite a handful, but rode it safely enough, even if her style was not perfect. Home in the pitch dark, noticing again how the lights of Little Paxton are visible in the dark from Paxton Hill. Tonight I caught up on some reading and my journal, leaving some word processed letters until the morning for convenience. Ended the day as tired and as behind on my history as I had started it. The news tonight is of the government responding to the clamour for a public enquiry into the London Kings Cross underground fire, where 30 people died and many more have horrific burns and lung damage from the heat and smoke. At 7.45pm last night, a fire broke out on an escalator and the wind ventilation and darkness and convection, created a furnace out of the tunnels and ventilators. Those who stayed below on the platforms escaped by the blast of cool air rushing upwards to feed the fire. It took until 5.00am this morning to account for everyone. The fire officer leading the first fire brigade team died breaking the rules to try to get a status report on the fire situation back to his control unit above. The Queen has sent a message of support and the Prime Minister also went to the scene to assess the result. There is widespread political criticisms of the way in which London Transport staff had been reduced in recent cutbacks and cleaning staff also less. Ironically, all the emergency staff and hospital staff at the receiving centres have received recent cutbacks with more on the way. This fire follows others in the last few years and in a report 2 years ago the tube was called a potential fire trap and a pressure group called for smoke detectors, fire doors, alarm bells and water sprinklers. A leading Ulster Unionist political extremist has been ambushed in the province and shot twice in the head. Dr Marietta Higgs, the controversial child abuse paediatrician, has again been defending her actions to a hostile enquiry. The government is introducing wide ranging legislation in the House of Commons tomorrow to change Britain’s secondary education. In the proposals, parents are given unprecedented powers and responsibilities and schools will be allowed to ‘opt out’ of local authority in favour of central control. These politically dogmatic proposals may be met with a mixture of teacher hostility and parent apathy.