Interesting interview with Mrs Beeson about the old Wray House and then more work on my Reliant van before Percy Meyer came round to see me and persuade me to stand for the Alliance at the forthcoming local elections. The Scottish health service is conducting a 1-day strike over privatisation and another clamp-down in South Africa takes place over anti-apartheid protests
A better night’s sleep, after the nights of recently. Awoke to a cold morning, with a chilly breeze and smatterings of rain and snow about in the air. I had planned to visit Mrs Beeson in St Neots and so I had to kick my heels for an hour or two before driving off to collect Frank Hall from Wantage Gardens and drive there. Diana was hostess to three families of children today, being their school holidays with their mothers needing to work. I dropped them off to town (St Neots) first, as they were getting restless, and then held my meeting. Mrs Beeson is in her 90s and a bit forgetful, but she helped me by lending a nice photograph of Wray House for copying. We stayed and chatted quite a while and then I took Mr Hall home and drove around Little Paxton on the way to see how it had been developed and to assess the remaining landmarks.
Eventually home at 2.00pm, but I only had a salad lunch to eat and so it did not matter. After some indecision, because of the cold weather today, I decided to go out and work on the Reliant for a couple of hours. I took off the exhaust system and then sprayed this, the manifold and cylinder head, all a matt black with fire resistant paint, which got rid of the rust and made it more attractive. I received a phone call from Perry Meyer tonight, after the Alliance AGM yesterday and he came round afterwards to talk to me. I reluctantly agreed to stand as the party candidate for the Ward, as I previously said I would as a commitment to Percy, Michael Pope and Marilyn Woodbridge at the selection committee. God help us. The news tonight is of the Transport and General Workers Union choosing a left wing candidate for the job of General Secretary. He supports the militant tendency and now the biggest block vote at the Labour Party Conference will be used to support the militants. There was an Anglo/Irish meeting today that went reasonably, despite the provocations the Irish are suffering. This is a tribute to secretary King, rather than government policy. The Scottish Health Service is conducting a 1-day strike today in protest against the ancillary services being put out to private tender (cleaning, laundry etc). The soldier that was involved in the border killing the other day has been charged with unlawfully killing Mr Aidan McAnespie. The soldier is David Holden, aged only 18. There has been another clampdown in South Africa over organisations campaigning against apartheid. Winnie Mandela and Archbishop Tutu claim that peaceful methods of protest are being closed one-by-one and that the path of violence for change is being encouraged. A parliamentary committee has criticised the poor supervision of charities, with many of them not submitting accounts for many years. The forecast is for more chilly weather tomorrow.