I was preparing for my forthcoming Little Paxton Friendship club talk on the village history and ensuring that the senior Little Paxton residents are invited and welcomed. Working with the District Solicitor on Southoe parish matters and then attending an evening meeting of the parish council with the Rev Peter Lewis and getting their agreement to support the SOS planning appeal whilst Diana takes the children to the Kimbolton statute fair. The IRA Gibraltar inquest confirms the army shoot to kill policy, Thatcher is alienating European colleagues by resisting integration and an emergency is declared in the Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh – actor Roy Kinnear dies in a riding accident and we turn off the swimming pool boiler as the swimming season ends
A day of meeting people and achieving little to tackle my backlog of paperwork after going through the mail and morning paper and then embarking on a whole series of phone calls. First area of work was my forthcoming Little Paxton local history talk and I called all of my old friends; Mrs Ruff, Mrs Bunnage, Mrs Davies and Mr Hall to ask them if they wanted to come along to see the slideshow of old photographs and hear what I had to say. I also checked with the secretary of Little Paxton Friendship Club and she confirmed that they would be welcome. By lunchtime, had just about found my feet again but then there were more people telephoned me on Ward queries and I received a call from the District Solicitor with information for Southoe Parish and I then passed it on. Soon I took the car and went over to Huntingdon to pick up a facsimile copy of section 137 of the 1972 Local Government Act that was needed for Southoe and also collected my mail from the council and a copy of the Hunts Post. A busy evening then followed, as Diana went back and forward to Kimbolton three times ferrying the children and taking them eventually to the Statute Fair.
I had an evening meeting with Southoe Parish Council and got the Rev Peter Lewis to ferry me there and back to save using the Rolls-Royce which would have given the wrong impression and filled up all their car parking places. We had a good meeting and they valued my advice and contribution on legal matters and other points. A policeman from Little Paxton was there standing in for the Buckden community policeman and we had a chat. The council decided to support the SOS appeal to the Planning Inspector with both a contribution to the legal fees and by sending a representative along. The news today is of the continuing Gibraltar inquest hearing. A senior police officer has testified that the IRA team were allowed into the country under surveillance and a local barrister tells how Mr McCann had his hands in the air as he was shot and killed as he lay on the ground. There was another bomb explosion in Belfast city centre today, the third in under a week. Mrs Thatcher is touring Europe and speaking out against European integration and upsetting everybody in the process. Her junior health minister, Edwina Currie, upset even more as she spoke to old people’s charities and condescendingly asked them to start knitting woolly clothes now for the winter weather. She was howled down in the process. In the USSR, an emergency has been declared in Armenia region of Nagorno Karabakh due to renewed and widespread violence between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis over disputed territory. Houses and cars were set on fire and gunfire shots heard. Actor Roy Kinnear has died after a horse-riding accident in Spain. We recently saw him in the theatre production of ‘A Man for All Seasons’ and I, for one, will miss this versatile and entertaining actor. The weather turned chillier today and I switch the swimming pool boiler off the end of an enjoyable season.