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Taking a nice drive alone after cleaning my two cars after Diana declines to come and then a day of letter writing progressing the issues that had been raised with me in my election campaign before rushing over 48-hr notice questions to Pathfinder House for the forthcoming HDC Council meeting and dropping copies off to local Parish council clerks. More sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, Russia have started leaving Afghanistan, Tory divisions over exchange rate policy persist and Israeli jets strike the Lebanon again as a new Air Traffic Control strike affects Manchester flights to France
We had a bit of a lay in this morning, until Diana got the morning drinks. A pleasant day, fresher and less humid of late and still sunny and warmer as the day progressed. Up in time for my traditionally fried Sunday breakfast and then I went out to clean both the Range Rover and Rolls Royce. Similar jobs of vacuuming the interior and then leathering the bodywork, but in between these I gave the utility car a thorough wet and foamy sponging, whilst the Rolls had only a damp sponge to wipe it off. Both ended up gleaming and then I put away the Range Rover and took the Rolls for a spin to keep the battery up and try it out. I wanted Diana to join me in the car, but she feels embarrassed at its presumptuous image and has been offish recently anyway, as she struggles to get back on her diet. I drove with the hood down, out of the village along Mill Lane, up the Huntingdon Road, turning through Toseland and watching the village of Great Paxton from atop the hill. Then to Waresley, which is a charming village, and home via Offord. You see so much more of the countryside from an open topped vehicle. Home and then I put the cars away and cleared up before lunch.
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FA Cup Final Day – Working on political correspondence on a day that started cool before hazy sunshine arrived so that I could comfortably mow the games lawn before hosting our normal family lunch out at the Sandy happy eater. Two games of croquet with Daniel and then to see Wimbledon beat Liverpool to win the FA Cup final! An Iraqi attack on the world’s biggest supertanker in the Gulf. is wrecking the ship with 50 seamen missing. SLD’s Cyril Smith is to retire at the next election due to ill-health.
I slept well enough last night, but had gone to bed far too late to start with. A little lay in, as Daniel’s school bus is half hour later on a Saturday. After breakfast, I came into my office, started up my word processor, and typed up several letters to public officials, progressing problems that had been brought up with many local people. The day started reasonably cool, but the mist cleared to give way to warm and hazy sunshine. I broke off and got out the multi-bladed cylinder lawnmower to mow the games lawn, which I then proceeded to do. Once finished, I suddenly had a yearning to set up the croquet pitch and I did this before lunch. Then it was time to collect Daniel from off of his school bus in St Neots and then take the whole family off to lunch. We drove down to the Sandy Happy Eater and (despite the restaurant being warm and the cream off) the meal was quite enjoyable.
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The job of collecting my remaining flag boards and chatting to supporters including the local coach proprietor who, with his wife, had both voted for me and then a trip to St Neots with Di and Della to buy some family christening presents followed by a reciprocal trip to St Neots Evangelists with John Law’s family. Thatcher addresses a closed meeting of ‘true blue’ supporters as Edward Heath have the McMillan lecture and lambasted her ‘uncaring’ government and called for an end to The Poll Tax proposals and Sir Geofrrey Howe and Nigel Lawson gang up on Thatcher over exchange rate policy
Slept well enough and rose on time for once and made my way to the breakfast table. I took the Range Rover afterwards and toured the village, collecting my remaining flag boards and chatting to a number of people who were congratulating me. I was pleased that Mr David Payne, the Little Paxton coach proprietor, stopped and did likewise. It seems that he was a Labour supporter, after his father, his wife a Tory and for the first time they voted together for me and the SLD! I took much longer than I thought and it seemed like another 15 or so of the boards before I had finished. I talked Di out of her trip to Bedford and took her and Della to St Neots instead, but first I chased HDC for my meeting papers and then I made arrangements for a party meeting at Glisson Road on Tuesday, to finalise my Election Expense return.
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Meeting the HDC Chief Executive and District Administrator to secure the right to get all committee papers and agendas when I discovered that a new standing order proposal would restrict the rights of minority members and so I was advised to use the system whilst it lasted. Home after lunch and some shopping to study the copious rules and documentation and then off to Offord to take Debbie horse-riding with Amy law in tow. An evening at the village hall for my first Parish Council meeting where I was co-opted on to the Council and got support for wanting a village policeman but less so about the football pitch. The local news full of my successful election and congratulations from the Constituency leader. News today that David Steel will not stand for SLD leader, P&O Ferries are emerging as the problem in the seamen’s dispute and defeat for the government in the House of Lords over the Education Reform Bill that would allow schools to opt out of Local Authority Control.
A poor night’s sleep without a pain killing tablet to ease the discomfort of my ribs. Slow to wake up this morning and so I had my breakfast in my dressing gown, to be with the others. Afterwards, I went to my office to order a few papers and soon realised that my meeting with the Chief Executive of Huntingdon District Council, Mr Gee, was at 9.30am and so I set off to arrive there on time. Other elected members were also due to see him and so my quarter of an hour of discussions caused a bit of a queue. I tackled him about standing orders and other HDC procedures and obtained permission to receive all of the agendas and papers for all of the committees, regardless of my eventual selection for any of them. On then for more time with the District Administrator, Peter Watkins, who was even more helpful and gave me quite a lot of background information and documentation. It seems that the new set of standing orders in preparation will be much more restrictive for minority groups and so I should appreciate the present opportunity to ask questions and comment freely. It remains to be seen which of my preferences, planning, environmental services, and leisure & amenities are accepted.