I was not alone in adopting a gloomy view of the economic prospects as there is wordwide Stock Exchange turmoil as the wintry weather arrives, here but I am working hard on my history project, catching up on phone messages, national and local news and progressing my projects after our Disneyland holiday. The family are mostly well and we managed outings for the Fireworks , November fair, and St James Church services amongst others as I completed my investment summaries, statements and children’s trust account schedules. The Kings Cross Underground fire, and the ‘Poppy day massacre’ in Inneskillen are the two lead stories but the latter is just part of the Irish troubles. Bad news as Thatcher ends free eye and dental tests, plans a Poll Tax for 1990, privatises schools and cancels UK involvement in Euro space efforts. US President Regan struggles with Supreme Court nominees, is censored over Irangate for illegal and unconstitutional behaviour but the arms deal with Russia seems to be on. The Gulf oil attacks continue as does persecution of the Tamils in Sri Lanka
Our start to the month was in the warmth of Disneyland, Californian but by the end of November we had the rains and winds, and we can now say that the end of autumn has come and winter has started. It became sharply colder towards the end, and at least a little dryer so the ground is getting a chance to dry out. Still no chance to lay our lawn turf yet and The Lady is a bit of a worry as there is no guarantee that, if I take it to Buckden, that they will be able to start work on it quickly. My family are coping reasonably well with the normal snuffles at the onset of winter. It is a pity that Debbie is only eating a little rather than a lot of food but not that trouble with Daniel, whose appetite matches his 6ft 3in stature these days. Both Di and I are several pounds overweight but I am tied to my desk and seem to get little time or opportunity for exercise. My Dad is more comfortable, having lost over a stone, and we hope his impending hospital appointment will identify the nature of the ‘lump’ in his bladder. A depressing time of year, now that Guy Fawkes night gone and Christmas some way off and there is not much economic news to cheer the soul either and either things will stay at the current depressed level or plunge still further into a great depression. During a recent evening visit from Nigel, we reviewed property and other investments and agreed a jointly gloomy view of the economy. This month I was working hard on my Little Paxton history project, making appointments and transcribing tapes
involving interviews with Cliff and Diana Roberts of Mill House, Paxton Park descendent Frank Hall (with his ‘gravel pit’ friend Dickie Sanders), Gladys Hazelton (once the Matron at Paxton Park Maternity Hospital) and the former Reynolds sisters, Ivy Bunnage and Vera Ruff, from the Anchor pub (and Vera’s daughter and son-in-law from Gamlingay), Mrs Connie Morris of the Paxton Park’s West Lodge and her North Lodge friend, the manager of Samuel Jones Paper Mill and the vicar of St James’s Church, the Rev Peter Lewis. Peter was interested and kept dropping by and we made a call to his PCC chairman from whom I was gaining praise for my St James Church history chapter only to hear the sad news of the state of the St James Church bells, which needed restoration and could no longer be rung. There was a large task, recording memories, transcribing all of the interview tapes and re-visiting, correcting and ordering all of the recollections but thoroughly enjoyable. Local photographer, Colin Howard, was fully employed by me copying all of the photos that came to light, framing certain of them and the maps that I bought from Cartographia in London after a history research visit. Of particular interest was the visit to Ivy Bunnage where I inspected her old ‘Saxon’ monument and ‘Parliament Clock’. I took delivery of my new ‘Penny Edition’ of the ‘new’ Domesday books so that I could study the Manorial entries for Little Paxton and my own manors of Great and Little Linton which had all recognised in 1088. And so, the month started at Anaheim in California where we were watching the Main Street parades in Disneyland, having breakfast at Coco’s and then taking off in the rented Oldsmobile to Universal Studios for a fun day with the family, with dinner at Denny’s as the our dollars flowed! There was disappointing news that Marineland was no more, vacated and sold for housing development with the animals sold or dead. We considered the trip to the San Diego Marine World but decided against it. Then the ordeal of a late and delayed overnight flight back to England on TWA but we still had time to check out the Anaheim Plaza shopping mall and enjoy their very special choc-ices. After all of the delays, I insisted on the girls having spreads of vacant seats to sleep on the TWA plane. Once home, and whilst still recovering from the plane journey and jet-lag, I was catching up on phone messages, national and local news and progressing my history and conservatory projects. I completed my investment summaries, statements and children’s trust account schedules, met with Roger Brittain and Gerard Chadwick, my family Trustees, to discuss tax and Children’s’ trust affairs and then worked on a £50K tax rebate I was then due as a result. This work is always the price you pay for going away and enjoying yourself. I was also visiting Godmanchester meadows to review a gravel extraction and cricket bat willow growing opportunity. After this initially mad rush, we enjoyed the Priory Park fireworks display, the Little Paxton November Fair, looking after Debbie’s overnight guest Sarah before taking her friend Amy with us to the RSPB films and play in the Village Hall afterwards. We still enjoyed the poorly-attended Little Paxton School Association Barn Dance, the St James’s Church family service on one occasion and to see the televised Cenotaph service and attend the St James Church memorial service with the family afterwards. Between times, I was cuddling up with my daughters, reading the Sunday papers and enjoying a full breakfast in bed when it had become too much. We were then off to see my parents for my Dad’s belated birthday visit and to learn the news of their health mentioned earlier. This family news from Mum, Dad and sister Freda was better overall but both Di and I are five pounds overweight after all that un-healthy American food. We supervised Daniel’s prep and Debbie’s flower arranging for Brownies and she wins her ‘hostess badge’ too. Di was collecting Debbie after her recorder lessons, and I was taking her horse riding upon the mischievous Dylan at the riding school, but the establishment’s future seems to be in doubt as they keep losing trainers. I was closely supervising Daniel over his school work, where his English is the remaining subject to improve he needed that supervision after ‘skimping’ on his prep as there followed the normal angst associated with Daniel’s parents’ evening night. There were several big news events that dominated on the home front this month. News first broke about a fire at Kings Cross underground station and then when the full details emerged it transpired that there were some 32 dead and ten more badly injured as the grisly process of identifying the underground fire victims continued. This tragedy followed years of neglect, with calls for sprinklers rejected and there was anger about the fire that smouldered for over 2 hours prior to the blaze. Station Fire Officer Colin Townsley, was amongst the fatal casualties of the Kings Cross Fire, as he tried to supervise efforts to save others. The ‘troubles’ in Ireland were also dominating the news with the appalling atrocity at the Enniskillen memorial where an IRA bomb killed 11 people commemorating the war deaths and it took time for the nation to recover from the shock and mourning over this so called ‘Poppy Day’ Remembrance Sunday massacre. There was more anger as another IRA bomb had been planted at a remembrance venue 18 miles from Inneskillen and had been found after it failed to explode. It was found, disarmed and the Boys and Girls Brigades there prayed for their lucky deliverance. Then a new and special remembrance service was planned with Thatcher in attendance and a mammoth security exercise followed after yet another bomb was detonated in Northern Ireland on the eve of this new memorial service planned for Enniskillen the following morning. There followed a massive police effort in Ulster with 40 IRA suspects arrested. John O’Grady’s kidnappers appear amidst heavy security precautions in Dublin’s central criminal court and there was evidence of an Ulster police atrocity as stories emerged of police intimidation of the Irishmen wrongly convicted of the last Birmingham Pub bombing. ‘The Border Fox’, Desie O’Hare, Ireland’s most wanted terrorist, was then shot, wounded and captured by Irish police. There were two more fatal police shooting incidents in England. Labour were trying to control the influence of left-wingers, by stopping a Sinn Fein lecture at their conference . The state of the economy was probably the story that had the most future impact and Thatcher was making it worse for poorer people with some very divisive policies. She was ending free NHS dental and eye tests, which is a backward step for public health and more controversy hits the headlines due to delays in children’s’ hole-in-the-heart operations and she decides to implement the Poll Tax in 1990 to avoid any resistance that further delay would incur. She is now introducing legislation for schools to go private and opt out of local authority in favour of central control and my old mate, Ken Baker, is the fall guy that encounters controversy over the consequent education bill. UK Industry Minister, Kenneth Clarke, got a pounding from fellow European Space Ministers, as Britain stuck to the very short-sighted policy of resisting any increase in space exploration research funding. BA were allowed to take over BCal and were given their international routes but at least the domestic ones are handed back to BAA for re-allocation. The UK postal union sought support for a strike over working conditions. In other news, Dr Marietta Higgs had to defend her actions in the Middlesbrough child abuse diagnosis enquiry after she wrongly accuses and imprisons more parents after taking away their children. The C of E Synod says that practising homosexual behaviour ‘falls short of the ideals expected’ in the priesthood and a £10million government introduce a compensation package to compensate the haemophiliac victims of AIDS. Two Red Arrow display pilots collide and crash but survice. There is the savage murder of two old ladies in England and the beloved comedy actress Irene Handl has died, aged 85. Nelson Piquet and British racing team Williams have won the F1 World Championships. Wider afield, the stock exchange turmoil had its effect throughout Europe and the world. EEC Farm Ministers have failed to reach agreement on an agricultural budget and new measures are being considered concerning genetic manipulation. I was amongst the first to become aware of the London Stock market turmoil constant monitoring from my new electronic terminal and was having had an early morning discussion with my stockbrokers on a key settlement day which set the market tone for the new month. Wall Streets were also retreating again, as the US budget negotiations continued at first without agreement until Reagan and the US Congress finally agree a budget with a very poor outcome. I thereafter kept a close watch on the stock exchanges, which kept falling until I eventually ventured to believe that the bottom had reached and a recovery underway could continue, when I started buying equities. Most of the news from the USA was bad. Casper Weinberger resigned after conflict with George Shultz and Reagan’s next Supreme Court nominee, Justice Ginsberg, is in trouble over cable TV conflicts of interest. Reagan tried for a third time to get a Supreme Court nomination approved and found his Nicaraguan intervention was even less justified according to Congress as the US congressional enquiry into Irangate, concluded that President Reagan and his staff acted illegally and un-constitutionally over the arms supplies to Iran and funds transfer to the Contras. There were two big fatal crashes of US aircraft with an horrific Boing 707 air crash on take-off, full of fuel and a South African jumbo jet crashes in mysterious circumstances in the Indian Ocean. The one piece of good news, and a very good one, was the continued optimism between Shultz and Shevardnadze as they made great progress with quite advanced mutual agreements on inspection and monitoring being reached with progress being made on their long range arsenals. These East/West arms talks between Officials continued into ‘extra time’ and, by the end of the month, Gorbachev was stopping over in London on the way to complete the Arms Treaty with US President Reagan. The New York Marathon was won by a male Kenyan and a British woman. Elsewhere in the world, there were more tit-for-tat raids in the Gulf, and Iraq bombs an Iranian nuclear power station construction site, killing 10 people. The Tamils in Sri Lanka suffer a curfew and 500 ‘rebels’ are arrested, another Ethiopian drought threatens thousands,16 Christians were killed in Zimbabwe and ANC’s Mbeki is finally released by the South African government after 23 years in jail and held his first press conference with restrained police action for once! The Haiti election is abandoned after Duvalier’s armed gangs of supporters killed 17 voters, the Iranian sheltering in their French Embassy after their Paris bomb attack is released, and Terry Waite is sighted in the Lebanon. Deng Xiaoping, the Premier of China retires.