Briefing Pete on the work I required to our lawns today as I was preparing for our trip to Anaheim and fielding calls from journalists about my new book as I travelled to St Ives for an auction. It seems that the ending of parole in prisons sparks riots as there is no incentive to behave, the Tory MP caught staging the BT share issue is freed on a technicality and a huge security operation precedes the Tory conference in Blackpool. The Iraq/Iran Gulf conflict escalates with plane and missile attacks
Slept in fits and starts, as the night seemed warmer and muggier than of late. Then read yesterday’s papers in bed for a while, before getting ready for breakfast. After the children had set off for school, I went out to talk to Pete about the outstanding work and care of the lawns. He was to use turves from our planned conservatory area to patch the old lawn and then carry on de-stoning the new lawn bed. It was fine this morning, after the rain of recent days, but I left Pete to the garden and spent this morning in the house, sorting out the luggage labels for our trip to Anaheim. I used highlighting pens to make the Jetsave labels distinctive, used permanent markers to write our address inside and on our new luggage, and onto the accompanying labels. Before long it was time for a salad lunch, as Di and Della had come back from the shops.
She had bought some ‘Strepsil’ anti-ring & threadworm medicine for Della to take. Poor thing had been sore and uncomfortable last night, but was reluctant to take this medicine, until she was offered chocolate and cheese biscuits! This afternoon, I took two phone calls from local journalists, as my press releases of yesterday hit home. I should get a result and some copy included in this week’s papers. Later, I set off for the Ornamental Art Auction viewing in St Ives and spent an hour or two looking at the paintings, but found none of them that I could not live without. Home again in time for some tea, heated again, but quite all right. This evening I did a couple of odd jobs and then had a little time for the TV. Panorama featured the dereliction of the inner cities, as the theme for the eve of the Tory Conference. Switched the pool boiler off and a couple of day’s heating will now be needed for a swim. The news tonight is of the latest Scottish prison siege, where the men hold a warder hostage. It is now admitted that the SAS were involved in the ending of the last siege. Five men had suffered knife wounds in the original attack and sex offenders are also being held hostage. The prison service is under attack from its critics, as well as its inmates. Under Thatcher’s new rules, prisoners sentenced for more than 5 years for violence or drug offences, there is no longer possible parole, thus removing the incentive to behave. Keith Best, the former Tory MP jailed for city offences, is released by the Chief Justice on appeal, because the BT prospectus did not spell out the possibility of criminal prosecution for multiple applications. Leon Brittain, former Tory Minister, spoke out today in favour of more effort to deal with the divisive social problems in Education & Housing. Ahead of the Conference, a mammoth security operation takes place in Blackpool to try to eliminate the threat from the IRA, but a more realistic threat comes from the Tory Liverpool delegates, who are campaigning for more inner city help. The meeting in Fiji today did not go Colonel Rabuka’s way and now the coup leader is considering his next move to declare a Republic. There are certain arson incidents and forests are destroyed by disaffected Asians. In the Gulf, long range Iraqi fighters hit 4 oil tankers, storing crude off of Iran, and tonight Iran launch missile attacks on Baghdad. In Europe’s biggest ever management buyout, the men running MFI furniture company have bought the company for £505 million, though they only put up £ ½ million, with the institutions providing the rest. More rain is forecast tomorrow.