The spectre of nurses having to strike for funding their beloved NHS
The spectre of nurses having to strike for funding their beloved NHS

A busy and eventful month of stormy weather with natural tragedies in Brazil and the UK and oil rigs being cast adrift as I weathered a chesty cold to take the family on a number of outings and progress a number of projects.  I take delivery of my historic 1939 Reliant van and worked on it, also arranged the acquisition of a 1972 Rolls Royce Convertible and updated my Range Rover, buying the registration marks VXD-1 and YXD-1 for them to look good. Debbie was riding well, Daniel is enjoying his own boat and getting good career advice after some satisfactory mock GCE results and Della was playing tricks and annoying Di. The games lawn was completed and we have changed our conservatory plans slightly, to appease the local planners, and now hope to get approval and this project underway. I was progressing my boating plans before getting too embroiled in the Council elections but my history project had slowed and needed a conclusion but I gleaned information about two former important riverside properties. Thatcherism becomes daily more extreme as prescription charges soar by 8%; now even the suppliers of electricity are being sold off and the ILEA is controversially abolished amongst worsening economic news. Nurses are demonstrating and striking over their pay reduction and the parlous state of the NHS and are joined across industry in a TUC day of action, The Pit Deputies shuts down the coal industry, Fords and Vauxhall do the same for the motor industry and the NUS seamen halt the ferries until they have to back down and negotiate after their union is fined. The government loses the latest Spycatcher case and now that John Stalker has revealed details of a ‘Shoot to Kill’ policy in Ulster they are accused of murder by the Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland. The Lords, banned the promotion of homosexuality despite ‘lesbians abseiling from the balcony’, as the House of Commons votes to televise Parliament. Iran and Iraq trade missile attacks at one another’s capital cities and terrible atrocities being perpetrated by Israel over their occupied Palestinian citizens are filmed and broadcast. South African police shoot dead a young man accusing them or torture and then tear-gas his church funeral but arch-bishop Tutu lead anti-apartheid services in defiance. Better news as the USSR are withdrawing missiles from East Germany

This 29th day of February in a leap year brings an eventful month of weather to a close. Torrential rain and mudslides precipitated mountain avalanches in Brazil which were then followed by horrific floods in Rio de Janeiro such that nation sought international help to cope with their disaster which leaves them with 540 dead and 10,000 homeless. Westerly hurricane-like gales killed two women in Northumbria and a girl is blown under a lorry and two more die as trees fall on cars. Two North Sea oil rigs broke their moorings in high seas and blustery gales. Dry but colder and wetter weather follow until the month ended on a mild but dull spell. The family have been healthy but poor Diana is very overweight and had to return to her weekly slimming club to try to get back under control. I have returned to my body target weight of 13st 5lbs, but I had caught the family cough, then felt poorly had a bad night and a poor start to the following day but I took some aspirin and carried on work.

I shook off a bad chest and head cold but one day I collapsed into bed tired and achy. We met Di’s mum, Norma, for lunch, and both Diana’s parents and brother have successfully completed their moves, but have both found their new houses rather smaller than they thought. We learnt this from Chrisula when she visited with her babies before Di helped her to settle in to Sandy. Di and I had to celebrate a belated Valentine’s Day after I had forgotten her card but she enjoyed entertaining her friends here for lunch and we got to Cambridge one evening to see the film ‘Cry Freedom’ Once the children broke up for their half term holiday, we took them to Bedford for a family photographic session. Della is becoming a character ensuring a funny start to one day when she locked Di into the shower room leaving her knocking to be let out! She often made an active start to the day to wake me up, accompanied neighbour Amy one morning who was not well enough for school and then caused mayhem one lunchtime with spillages. Debbie is doing well with her horse-riding session, mastering the troublesome Dylan, doing well on Rumpold  and also on Flint who is quite a handful. Di took the girls to St Neots indoor pool swimming and I was able to take them for a morning ride to Little Paxton playground in my Reliant. Daniel’s seems to have had some good career advice and did well in his geography GCSE mock exam but is too young to drive the Reliant yet but was working with me as well as anti-fouling the hull of his own cruiser, Little Lady, before launching it at the St Neots slipway  after. I received my Reliant van, managed to start it and spent plenty of time working on it this month, servicing it and trying to solve its battery charging problem in cold and frosty weather. I was studying the registration documents and handbook, and, with the aid of help from the Reliant Club, also researching Reliant information to find out that this was one of only fifty made before the war and was used for delivery of pots and pans until 1948. It seems mine is the only complete 1939 model still in existence! I had it jacked up to remove the wheels for restoration and painted it in British Racing Green. I bought car servicing tools and equipment, received the Austin 7 manual for the Reliant Austin 7 and bought engine spares. Suffering from a possibly-cracked rib and still working with cold engine parts on a cold and snowy day, I eventually got the engine re-assembled greasing all of the moving suspension parts and was working out how to service it in the future. I hosted a few trips on it, with the girls and then a trip to the newsagent with Dan and his mates in the back! Now dubbed ‘Percy’, I drove it up and down Gordon Road which was quite fitting for ‘Comic Relief day’! I also successfully searched for a Rolls Royce Corniche Convertibles arranging for the RREC newsletter to include our advert within, arranging to see Rolls Royce’s in London despite heavy traffic and in forecast Hurricane-like gales, reviewing and selecting a 1972 black model from Croydon. I complete the deal which involved paying a third and having some work done and was then searching for suitable ‘cherished numbers’ via the Exchange and Mart and I found two registration numbers that would suit, YXD-1 and VXD-1. My trusty Range Rover had not been completely overshadowed by the arrival of other vehicles, as I fitted some accessories and worked on the tow bar ready for its VXD-1 recognition. I reckon that most of the next couple of months will be over shadowed by my Council elections campaign, but I also hope to see The Lady back soon and get it ready for the new boating season. I had a very successful outing to The Broads for my civil case achieving compensation for the damage to my Blue Peter dinghy and then went on to Cromer for a sea food before a trip to Wroxham and on to Brundall for boat discussions. I was making some progress on choosing a successor boat and I think that Michael Carrington will be a good man to back for my commission if I decide to get a new one built. In my quest to save our favourite riverside playground, I went to  Godmanchester to meet the Mayor, Clerk and other officials for a playing field site visit where I find certain of them to be very uncooperative about saving it but they will put my offer to the Council at their next meeting. Concerning my own political plans, there were more trials and tribulations with the SDP/Liberal Alliance but Percy Meyer calls me and came round to see me and persuade me to stand for the Alliance at the forthcoming local elections. I then had to write my election candidate’s address for an evening meeting at Michael Pope’s house where my Paxton campaign was first on the agenda. It has been slow going editing my History of Little Paxton but I was scheduling more Little Paxton history interviews and thoroughly enjoyed visualising the era when Heddings’s Manor was occupying our own Hayling View spot overlooking the river. I also met former resident Mrs Clarence Beeson about the old Wray House  The games lawn is now growing and the special ATCO Club cylinder mower was delivered and I was well pleased with it. This should see it properly cultivated now that we see the river subsiding revealing the Games Lawn clear but muddy. I made arrangements for a HDC planning office to visit concerning my conservatory but he was unhappy about the scale of my conservatory, despite The Hayling View being a combination of two houses now. The Observer is very critical of my forestry tax relief scheme but I continue to enjoy the generosity that it complains off.  The outside world is ever more depressing – Thatcherism is becoming more extreme and increases prescription charges by a bumper 8% and even the most logical of public utilities, the supply of electricity, to be sold off into competing private hands and Scottish Electricity will buy imported coal with dogma winning over the logic of an integrated system! Britoil seems all set to be taken over by BP and Ken Baker abolishes the ILEA, enraging teachers and Londoners alike, which is just political prejudice.  Thatcher is again isolated at a European Summit over the agricultural budget; battling France and Germany over the CAP which protects agriculture and the rural areas but eventually agrees to some more EU agricultural support measures. Chancellor Lawson scares the stock market with a 1% interest rate rise, the Midland Bank has lost half a billion pounds which sends the stock exchange tumbling and the financial papers are full of worsening economic news with the Investors Chronicle talks of market nervousness. A demonstration took place ‘for peace’ in London and there is a huge and growing level of industrial unrest but the state of the NHS and the nurses marches and strike are the most remarkable development.  The RCN offers formal support to striking nurses and is balloting members on strike measures. There are protests and arrests of nurses in Downing Street and Trafalgar Square until eventually a delegation was allowed to present a petition, every London hospital is  picketed lines by nurses to prevent non-urgent-operations and the BMA wants an extra £1,500 million for NHS funding.  The Scottish health service also suffered a 1-day strike over privatisation whilst the government are opposing pay rises for nurses, with Thatcher hitting out at their strikes.  The joy of Valentine’s Day was blighted by the sad news of the hole-in-the-heart boy, Matthew Collier, dying after his operation had been put off three times due to nursing shortages. Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie, gets bags of flour and rotten tomatoes thrown at her when visiting Glasgow University as students protest over the NHS. A TUC delegation was disappointed to get no response from the Health Secretary at a meeting and so the NHS demonstrations continue with Birmingham consultants claiming that people are dying unnecessarily. Strikes are planned for the NUT and RCN for March 5th  and Thames Water workers are now balloting for a strike to. The Nacods pit deputy strike shuts down nearly all of the coal industry as they start an overtime ban but then the NCB undermine their role and implement flexible working without notice but they are still working to rule to keep certain pits closed. The seamen’s strike went ahead against the threat of ‘secondary picketing’ fines for the NUM and 500 lorries queued at Dover port over ferry cancellations as the sacking of their Belfast colleagues is another issue. This as, after the Herald tragedy, another ferry door falls off!, The NUS is then fined over the Seaman’s strike and they cave in as both sides sensibly settled their differences but Dover is still shut down. Workers reject a deal at Fords and tens of thousands of workers go out on official strike which was solid and then the car industry strikes spread to Ford Europe in Belgium and Vauxhalls at Elsmere Port. The TGWU funds the UK Ford Strike and Fords is forced = to the negotiating table but there remain some doubts over the outcome of Ford pay negotiations and now Land Rover have last-ditch talks to avoid a strike. Better news is of Comic relief raising £10m. The Appeal Court finds against the UK Government over the Spycatcher row and the governments ‘shoot to kill’ policy in Ulster is revealed by John Stalker despite a cover up in the RUC and allegations follow that the RUC were behind the discrediting of John Stalker’s enquiry which leaves the Republic of Ireland protesting at the lack of prosecutions and a delayed meeting with Ireland’s Haughy for the Anglo/Irish talks. The government decided not to prosecute Stalker over revealing his findings but then plans to make the emergency ‘Prevention of Terrorism’ measures permanent which further angers the Ulster Catholics. Another crisis after an innocent civilian is killed by the RUC at a checkpoint and the premature release of another killer leads to  Cardinal Tom O’Fiaich, the Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland, calling the death of Mr McAnespie murder and it leads to an exhumation for a second post mortem. The Lords, banned the promotion of homosexuality despite ‘lesbians abseiling from the balcony’, as the House of Commons votes to televise Parliament. The most serious global development was hostilities between Iran and Iraq which have started firing missiles at each others’ capitals and this looks sure to escalate as a bloody development to their war. Continual and horrifying TV pictures emerged of terrible atrocities being perpetrated by Israel over their occupied Palestinian citizens, who are shot dead when demonstrating. When captured, they are either killed or beaten and two Palestinians are then buried alive by Israeli soldiers. Neil Kinnock sees injured Palestinian youths in the refugee camps and US Secretary Shultz visits the West Bank and both gave support to Palestinian self-determination as a US Lt Colonel is kidnapped. We hear of the pro-Nazi war time activities of Austrian President, Kurt Waldheim, who is under pressure. In South Africa, a 19-year-old shot dead after he accused the authorities of torture and police then fire teargas into his church funeral as part of another clamp-down takes place over anti-apartheid protests but arch-bishop Tutu is leading anti-apartheid services in South African churches which defy the ban on meetings. Reagan is again trying to get military aid for the Contras and there is trouble in Panama after a disputed coup. Primary Fever starts between Dole and Bush in the USA as the USSR are withdrawing missiles from East Germany