We saw the children off to school despite oversleeping and Debbie suffering from hay fever after which I spent this morning working in my office, filing press cuttings and dealing with constituent’s complaints, which continued this afternoon with correspondence and press releases. This evening to the council’s finance and general purposes committee where the sole Labour councillor, Jim Lomax, tried but lacked the knowledge and skills to hold the Tories to account. News today of a record trade deficit on the UK balance of payments of £1.2 billion with the pound sterling sharply falling. Two trains crashed head on in Paris with many dead and this after the air crash in France of the A320 yesterday deemed to be by pilot error
Slept so well last night that we all overslept until 7.00am and had to rush to get the children out to school. Daniel was taking his additional mathematics exam (Pt 1) today and Debbie was snuffling again and actually sick with her hay fever, but still got off to school. I showered and dressed rather late and then settled down in my office for a morning sticking the last three week’s press cuttings into the Little Paxton scrap book. I also heard from Mr Butler again, the aircraft noise campaigner, who reported a call from the Alconbury Squadron Leader, who has denied that his aircraft were responsible for our noise problem a couple of weeks ago. After lunch, I started an afternoon writing and typing up a backlog of correspondence on a variety of matters and also wrote a letter to local editors as well. After tea, it was time to drive to Huntingdon to observe the latest Council Committee meeting – the Finance and General Purpose Committee. I sat there and watched proceedings complete themselves in an hour, with very little debate and discussion. Labour Cllr, Jim Lomax, tried a little, but did not have the skills to question the Tory steamroller.
I drove home in the rain after and was back in time to watch the 9 o’clock news and write up my journal. It had been a dull and cool day and in marked contrast to others of late. It seems that interest rates are due for a 1% rise at least. The main news today is of a record trade deficit for Britain on Balance of Payments of -£1.2 Billion, the worst figures on record and twice as bad as economists expected. The pound fell by 2 cents and 3 pfennigs. In a Paris train crash, at least 15 are dead after two trains crashed head on. One travelling at speed crashed into the other, waiting and full of passengers at a platform of the Gare de Lyon. French investigators say that the crash yesterday at the A320 was due to pilot error, as it was flying too low and given too little time to climb clear of some trees. The Swiss authorities have blamed the Prince of Wales skiing party for the avalanche, where one skier was killed and another seriously injured. The parents of a baby boy, starved to death, were given 8 to 10 year prison sentences for murder and their relatives were disappointed the times were so little.