A generally warm and sunny month for us to enjoy our swimming pool, games lawn and outings which was accompanied by good news as Daniel did well at his GCSE exams, Debbie at her horse-riding and both girls at their swimming as all the children hosted friends for day visits and overnight stays and had reciprocal invitations for parties. Our regular trips to Diana’s and my own parents continued to find my mother in pain from shingles and Di was also in pain from time to time. My Rolls-Royce proved troublesome but presented a nice backdrop for Linda Nagle’s wedding. We took the Range Rover to Blackpool for a stay and visit to their Pleasure Beach amusement park. A lot of time spent on The Lady, renovating the sliding roof and fitting new glass windows, a new Raleigh bicycle and fitted accessories for me. Back to local government and politics, helping recruit more candidates for the SLD, holding a village meeting with Redland over their future plans, leading a campaign for dog-fouling by-laws for the playing field whilst trying to progress my village history project. The Tory Government is presiding over an over-heating economy causing a record trade deficit and falls on share and property prices. Their battle with the IRA escalates to a new level, with an effective bombing campaign at home and abroad killing a dozen British soldiers and injuring many others, the black-and-white German/Belgian number plates being a crazy dead giveaway before they were abandoned. The SAS reprisals under a scarcely-veiled shoot-to-kill policy and their illegal supply of firearms to others plus extradition proceedings inflamed tensions with hundreds of attacks on security forces, buses and cars. Thatcher’s planned Australian walkabout was cancelled over protests about her support for repression in Ulster and South Africa, she came back to nurses, postal worker and prison officers’ striking at home. Severe world tragedies kill 250 in Chinese floods and nearly 1000 in a Nepalise earthquake and the Sudan faces destitution after droughts give way to torrential rain with the Nile flooding huge areas. 300 pilgrims die as a boat capsizes on The Ganges and now Burma has become a flash point with more than 1,000 protesters shot dead by security forces until President Sein Lwin is forced to resign. It was a month for airplane crashes; one killing Pakistan President, Rajiv Zia, together with 5 Brigadiers and 5 Generals, The Ramstein Air Crash Show disaster killed 70 spectators and injuring 500 when three Italian Air force display planes collided. Negotiations for peace between Iraq and Iran and the release of western hostages are slow and tortuous. Nelson Mandela’s illness and other protests in South Africa may yet lead to his release.
This was generally a warm and sunny month with some windy and fresher days and the odd downpour but it was quite a contrast after the rain and coolness of July. We managed a few days’ holiday at the seaside in Blackpool, although we found Norfolk a damn sight warmer! We had a Rolls Royce Enthusiast Club day trip to Mill Farm, Happisburgh, for a barbeque and beach party but it was in the heat without air-conditioning... Our home was a great joy for the family and the house and swimming pool have been host to a good many visitors and friends of the children. Daniel and friends often entertained girls at home and on his boat and the whole family enjoying the swimming pool with 9-year-old Debbie and her friend Amy running around naked on one swelteringly-hot day! Debbie and Della were always hosting friends Amy and Katherine when they swam all day and sometimes stayed the night sleeping in a tent and Debbie’s friend Phillipa and Daniel’s friend Gary Skinner each stayed with us overnight. The children have done well in their summer achievements; Daniel with his 6 ‘O ‘ level equivalent GCSEs as he did well in his Maths exam, passes English and is all set for taking science subjects at A-level and I bought him a new stereo hi-fi and upgraded his bicycle as a reward. The girls had success with their swimming and riding with the girls being awarded swimming certificates. Debbie had some new riding boots from Alconbury Weston and subsequently enjoyed her day at the riding stables summer school, riding twice, grooming and cleaning stables and tack and then won a rosette for successfully captaining a team. Di took Debbie to enjoy a friend’s party and ride her pony, astonishing other guests.
On another occasion, Debbie was off by minibus to Whipsnade Zoo on Samantha’s birthday trip and she now enjoys crab and prawns with me. Daniel and friends were also enjoying our facilities, typically having half an hour bowling on our newly-cut games lawn with the sport now being much better with the bowls being of multiple colours. I also played and beat Daniel and Gary at Croquet there and my neighbours were also enjoying their riverside gardens. Our regular trips to Cambridge and Bedford continued visiting Diana’s and my own parents, taking Daniel and Della for coffee in Eaden Lilley and shopping trips to Bedford. I had phoned my mother and found her quite poorly and so I took a drive to Stanton on my own in the Rolls-Royce to visit my parents and check on the health of my Mum who was recovering from a really nasty attack of shingles and to see their pond and fish and show them recent photographs. I had a nice drive back with the hood down enjoying the weather and visiting favourite places before stopping in St Ives for the antiques fair. I was also worrying about Diana’s health as she was occasionally shopping in pain. The month ended with me clearing my desk before our holiday and undertaking the 200-mile journey in the Range Rover from Little Paxton to Blackpool and arriving after a four-hour journey to find the Pembroke Four-Star Hotel had mishandled our booking. After a two-hour wait when the girls swam in the pool, we were eventually given a suite, which was satisfactory. Daniel and I took a walk along the Front and then, the children having tea, Diane and I went off for a nice meal in the Admiral Hotel restaurant afterwards. A further family holiday day in Blackpool, sunny and fine for our visit to The Pleasure Beach amusement park and then to the pier and finally the beach for donkey rides. Earlier in the month, after first valeting the Rolls-Royce, it presented a nice backdrop for Linda Nagle’s wedding as her wedding car where it was used with white ribbons and bows, and my video recorder also used for taking pictures of the ceremony. My 1972 Rolls-Royce Corniche had been getting attention and was gradually being knocked into shape now that it was being serviced by official Rolls-Royce service dealers, Alec Norman of Bedford. Money was spent on a used steering box, which was fine, but we were still struggling with the aircon, which did not matter too much when we had the hood down. By contrast, the Range Rover has been a stoic performer ferrying everyone here and everything there. I managed to get my lawnmower into repair, bought a heavy-duty electric strimmer, successfully collected my Hayter Harrier mower from Ibbetts and transported glass and all else for The Lady’s renovation. I was working on The Lady, renovating her mahogany canopy, repairing her sliding roof channels, filling in and sealing the cracks in her solid wood superstructure and then applying more protective varnish. I was covering her by buying and fitting a new protective tarpaulin to fend off the showers as I removed her old windows and replacing with safety glass. I wanted a large-frame bike and then ordered a Raleigh Chiltern via a local dealer and fitted accessories. I was also cleaning the Range Rover and Reliant, modifying the house alarm system and adjusting alarm contacts in the garages to avoid false disturbances. There was also a meeting my family trustees and financial advisers and one with Rural Development advisers about investing in agricultural property and a further visit by Nigel, who was seeking advice and considering whether to sell his business. With my summer break coming to an end, I was plunged back into my local government work and political affairs. It is going to be difficult and time-consuming keeping the momentum going towards next May’s County Council Elections, but the rewards will be there if we are successful with three good local candidates in place. I met Peter and Jean Wilmer to their house near Stoughton, for a good social event and SLD political discussion and he agreed to stand as a County Council candidate for us. Together with Michael Pope, we were writing our stories later for our next FOCUS leaflet highlighting these problems and what we are doing to solve them. I organised a meeting to which I invited Mr John Leivers, Lands and Planning Manager for Redland to meet 40-50 residents at the village hall about their future plans and he was grumpy at first but warmed later. I took a walking tour of Paxton Pits and then cycling around Paxton village looking at road and footpath problems, and to see how the Nature Reserve designation would affect them and I found places and paths that I did not realise existed. I was also helping local electors with a noise issue to do with a resident installing a plastic dome over their pool and was talking to others about Parish Council issues, with ‘dog-fouling’ on the playing field being the controversial issue. I was able to maintain progress to control dog fouling there, lobbying Parish Councillors over byelaws and had the lighter task of attending the Diddington fete as a VIP guest and judging the ‘dressed bicycle competition’. I only wished there were more hours in the day to advance my local history studies and so that I did not have to worry about them after hosting two school-girls keen on researching our village history. I attended the Pathfinder House planning meeting to observe their proceedings and had to spend a whole day undertaking all manner of correspondence on private and council business. Nationally the Tories get their own way with the opposition divided, but their economic policy is developing holes. UK gold and currency reserves were up $910m, as the Bank of England sold sterling heavily to try to hold the pound’s rise and a bank interest rate rise hits the stock exchange valuations as an overheating economy is worrying the markets. There is also a record trade deficit which triggered a further large fall on the stock exchange with the housing market under threat as Chancellor Lawson works hard trying to bolster confidence in the economy. Even the new UK government ETS scheme as a means to lower unemployment statistics. The battle with the IRA becomes a war with a concerted campaign of IRA bomb attacks growing in effectiveness, the UDR sustaining deaths and injuries and there was even a bomb attack on London’s Mill Hill barracks in Thatchers Finchley constituency. The IRA injure more soldiers in a German bomb attack, with Tom King breaking off his holiday to review these daily atrocities and then yet another IRA bomb wrecked an army coach, killing 8 soldiers and injuring 27 others which had the effect of bringing Thatcher back from her holiday to consider yet reject the question of internment. This was ruled out as its unfairness being counter-productive. The IRA shoot and kill another British soldier abroad, in Oostende, as his car plates give away their identity and the row about British soldiers’ number-plates making them vulnerable caused those distinctive black and white number plates being withdrawn in West Germany. The government try to prevent supplies of Semtex and, two men were killed in a machine gun attack by Protestant ‘paramilitary forces’, and sad funerals on both sides of the Ulster troubles take place. The IRA then reacted violently to the extradition of one of their men as sympathetic Republicans orchestrated a day of violence in Belfast with many bombs exploding and buses set on fire with 60 vehicles hijacked and 200 attacks on the security forces in the worst violence for a long time. Three SAS men face charges of gunrunning revolvers to the London criminal fraternity and several IRA men are killed in an SAS ambush in a shoot to kill operation such that more controversy grows over the SAS IRA ‘executions’. Northern Ireland Republicans mob Thatcher during an unwise ‘walkabout’ in Melbourne after the Aussies had advised against it and Thatcher struggled to justify her defence of South Africa repression on Australian TV and had to cancel her latest walkabout for fear of security breaches, with Sein Fein applauding the recent events. A potentially devastating bomb IRA exploded in Belfast city centre, but good warnings avoided injury this time. This was not the only trouble for Thatcher’s government; Post Office unions are threatening industrial action over unfair bonus rules, the Nurses pay talks break down and their pay row is not helped by all four health minsters being on holiday at the same time, Holloway prisoners castigate the 280 striking prison officers and authorities are under the spotlight over child abuse and pollution as huge cuts in social services have to be announced by Brent Council. The nurses then seem unconvinced about the government’s change of heart on nursing Sisters pay as nurses pay increases are undermined by grading changes with Middlesex Hospital nurses voting to strike. In other setbacks, computer failure at West Drayton disrupts air traffic and the roads are jammed with holiday traffic, two Tornado jets crash into each other, killing four airmen, extra safety valves are being considered for oil platforms after the Piper Alpha tragedy, Ken Dodd is on trial for tax evasion, a security guard and rescuer are knifed in a robbery and rival Muslim factions fight outside a Luton Mosque. There is a huge play on the singularity of this date. At 18 mins past 8 on the 8th August 1988 Princess Beatrice was born daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Duchess of York. An Italian ship loaded with hazardous chemical waste was prevented from landing by British harbour masters today, as protests oppose Britain being ‘the dustbin of Europe’. New pub hours start with no break between lunch and evening drinking sessions. As well as those that were ‘man-made’, a series of ‘natural disasters’ dominate this month’s news with violent floods killing more than 250 in China, after a lengthy drought, leaving more than 100,000 homeless. 18ins of rain fell in 12 hours – the most severe for centuries and this follows other extremes of weather in the USA and Greece with sweltering conditions of 97degF in New York, the 35th day over 90degF!. The Sudan is still flooded after the Nile bursts its banks and this after the famine in the Sudan this year and so relief is being moved from Rangoon to the flooded areas. A catastrophic earthquake between Nepal and India, kills more than 900 and injures thousands, and renders homeless many thousands more. And 300 pilgrims die as a boat capsizes on The Ganges. Forty Burmese demonstrators are killed in street protests and over 100 are shot dead as violence is also used to try to quell the Burma revolution and anarchy. Mass crowd attacks on security forces have killed around 1,000 dead and even prisoners shot dead. The recently appointed President of Burma, Sein Lwin, now dubbed ‘The Butcher of Rangoon’, is giving up power after his violent response to the widespread looting, petrol bomb attacks, etc. It was a month for airplane crashes; one killing Pakistan President, Rajiv Zia, together with 5 Brigadiers and 5 Generals. The Pakistani authorities believe that a rocket or bomb downed Zia’s plane but that is still speculation. There is also the appalling news of the Ramstein Air Crash Show disaster killing 70 people and injuring 500 when the Italian Air Force ‘Piercing Heart’ display went fatally wrong and there are even more plane crashes occur in the US and China. The US Shuttle engine test was put off after an engine valve failure and NASA could have suffered sabotage. The Soviet Union destroys missiles under the INF treaty but Iran/UK negotiations over the release of Western hostages are slow and tortuous as ever but Mr Reddaway, the British envoy to Iran, has at last seen jailed Briton Richard Cooper. The Iraq/Iran war peace talks founder at first as Iraq is in the ascendency and sees no need to compromise, but then last Iraq agrees to a ceasefire and hopes are raised and UN peace-keepers head off for the Gulf to police the Iraq/Iran ceasefire only to find that peace talks are suspended again. Jordan has withdrawn any payments for West Bank work, saying it was now for the PLO. This, as diplomatic efforts to free Iranian hostages grow. Jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela is admitted to hospital with pneumonia, which frightens the authorities and his illness might yet lead to his release from jail, now that 143 white men in South Africa refuse to be conscripted saying they do not want to oppress the blacks. Mathias Rust, the West German who flew was jailed after flying a light plane into Red Square, has been released and repatriated and Enzo Ferrari dies, aged 92. The US election conventions are a sadly unrealistic theatrical spectacular as ever and deserve little mention.