Phoning round this morning to secure nominations for my District Council election campaign before lunch in a smoky St Neots restaurant and then to some TV sport and my journal as a mass protest over funding of the NHS with the largest in Hyde Park. Thatcher is unmoved and can only talk about her planned Poll Tax and then sends security forces into an IRA funeral
Awoke on time, despite a very late bedtime again. Even after I was in bed, I had great trouble sleeping, my mind being full of this local election business. These days the sun is rising as I wake, which is a better encouragement to the start of the day. Late to breakfast and then slow to scan the papers and today’s mail. I was mentally preparing myself to make a number of phone calls to sign up sponsors for my candidature nomination. A process of calling and calling back, as Saturday morning is a time when many are out, but I succeeded in getting Parish Councillor, Ian Gun, Connie Morris of The Lodge, Vera Ruff as three. I also contacted Mike Redding of Southoe, leader of the anti-development campaign, and tried to persuade him too, but he thought he should be neutral in deference to sitting Paxton Ward Councillor Mrs Green’s help over the planning applications. We will meet anyway, as he is interested in my local history studies. I called Percy Meyer to update him on developments and he was pleased with this progress. At lunchtime I took the family to St Neots for lunch, but it was rather too smoky for my liking.
I washed and leathered the Range Rover today, but this afternoon I sat and watched the rugby internationals on TV and took pleasure in watching England beat Scotland and Wales beat Ireland to win the Triple Crown. Tonight I wrote a few letters, sorted out my papers and wrote up these last two days journal. The news tonight is of a mass protest over the funding of the NHS, as thousands of people march. Nurses, health workers and trade unions are displaying an unaccustomed unity. The largest rally was in London Hyde Park, as the call is for a budget to help the crisis rather than give tax cuts. Thatcher is defiant, speaking out in a Tory local government rally about the advantages of the proposed poll tax. Mayhem at an Ulster funeral, as an IRA demonstration of balaclavas etc is broken up by the security forces. The weather is to get milder and wetter in the next few days