Starting cold with a biting wind, the month ended warm and sunny and ideal for Daniel’s driving lessons in his new car and Debbie’s riding and Pony Club events as Della too showed signs of growing up. My Dad was a worry as his ear cancer treatment continued at Addenbrookes. The family enjoyed our Mother’s Day lunch, the Good Friday visit to Little Paxton Woods and our meals out and shopping trips. My Hariwake Ohgon Koi carp was a little better, after its infection, the rest very active and feeding constantly.
This month saw an end to my work on the History of Little Paxton to be ready for Little Paxton’s Annual Parish Meeting on April 20th . My next project was to be the Democrat regional coordinator for the County Council and Gransden District by-election campaigns in May. Organising volunteers, producing election addresses and preparing canvassing materials and the campaign was good to go! My Council work continued to progress well, working on my proposed changes to Standing Orders, campaigning with residents on planning and environmental matters and supporting the Parish Council, Village Hall and St Neots Museum committee.
A month of redundancies, £1.7 billion trade deficit, and multiple fatal train crashes, blamed on manning level reductions and lack of investment, and an explosive lorry catches fire and explodes in Peterborough, Comic Relief has to fund care of the elderly and homeless and Prince Charles and Prince Philip have to step in to plead for environmental action.
The UK declines Iranian talks as the East West arms talks open in Geneva as the worst violence in 40 years strikes the Lebanese war-torn nation and USSR rebel Boris Yeltsin wins 87% of the vote to win a Moscow seat in the ‘new-style’ Soviet elections
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The month of March had its occasional unseasonably mild night but continued with the customary cold and biting wind for the most part, before ending milder with a series of nice Spring-like beautiful, still, warm and sunny days. Debbie had her first trips to the Pony Club and enjoyed them but there remained the difficulty of getting Sundance in and out of the horse trailer which complicated matters! Little Della has suddenly grown up a lot this last few weeks and is no longer a baby girl. Daniel reached his 17th birthday and his excitement at getting a car and being able to learn to drive was a joy. Diana and I realise the childen will soon be spreading their wings and maturity comes all too quickly. Family health is generally good, though Daniel awoke with ear ache and partial deafness one morning and we had to organise a visit for him to the doctor. Also, I had some worrying symptoms of strain and had to take some time away from my desk but, after a better night’s sleep, I felt much rested as I sat in the conservatory. Our biggest worry was my Dad who has been in Addenbrooke’s Hospital for his incision to remove part of a malign growth on his ear. We all hope and pray that this is the end of the trouble, but I fear it is not. There is so much cancer about these days. I visited him in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, to talk his surgeon about the cancer that has affected his ear and then took the family over again and we pray his cancer will have been arrested. Freda had spoken to my mother to keep her spirits up after Dad’s operation and then he dropped by after a hospital appointment and came with me to see me training Sundance and to see the Koi carp in Sandy, where he was amazed by the larger ones but felt that smaller ones would settle in better to our new pond. These were touching times to spend with my Dad. Di’s parents arrived for tea on Daniel’s 17th Birthday, when he opened his presents and was given nice Escort 1100 car that Diana and I had bought him in St Neots, after which I gave him his first driving lesson of many this month. By the end of it, I was letting Daniel drive with me to Cambridge and back. I have been determined that this experience of teaching him to drive is bringing us closer together and it is good to see how I can handle him without losing my temper and how he acknowledges the lessons that he is getting as I continued training Daniel to drive, just as my Dad had done with me. Daniel was also performing his Buckden voluntary school service. It was Debbie and her pony Sundance that were the main activities that Di and I had to facilitate this month. She was jumping multiple fences superbly and having many successful horse-riding lessons and even galloping on her rides! She was taking her friend Amy along, and even Della had a try! The main problem was getting Sundance into the horse trailer and we practised this in first Rolly Smith’s and then Fiona’s trailer ahead of Debbie’s Pony Club debut, which was a success apart from his difficulty in boxing at the end!
Di was also pursuing her interests; attending a committee meeting of the Brownies and making her trip to Colchester to see her sister. Amongst the other family activities and events this month was Mothering Sunday, when we took Diana for her Mother’s Day lunch, and the whole family Good Friday visit to Little Paxton woods and family service at St James’s Church; for before sharing a Chocolate Easter egg. I hosted the normal lunches with Diana and family at the Happy Eater; shopping trips to Cambridge and Bedford and to St Neots for the sad Clayton’s closing-down sale. There was a late visit from Chas and Chrisula for Daniel’s birthday and a stroll around the Riverside area of Paxton on a warm evening. I still have a dozen big jobs to do this spring, but there are none of them is important as my family and community and it is a great satisfaction that I have time to spend with them both. I had a visit from former industry colleague, Graham Clifton and family, for a look around The Hayling View before taking them for lunch at The Anchor and from Mr O’Keeffe, the spares secretary of the Reliant Club, who collected some wire wheels and things after I had taken the old Reliant spare chassis apart on the drive. With everything else going on, I had just 10 minutes of time for tax planning with my accountant and local stockbroker as the extent of my financial planning! My Hariwake Ohgon Koi carp was a little better, after its infection, and had resumed feeding and continuing its recovery. Stephen Field came again and inoculated it for the last time and it was then released into the main pond, which was quite an involved process. I had many relaxing sessions watching my fish become very active and feeding constantly to indicate that they were are progressing well.
This month saw an end to my work on the History of Little Paxton, which came as a monumental relief in view of the time and trouble it had taken. I ended up being promised that the book would be ready for Little Paxton’s Annual Parish Meeting on April 20th, and in time for my public talks which was little short of miraculous. The joy was that I did not have to compromise in the end and included everything that I wanted as well as a creating a super index! The process also had its setbacks such as computer error as well as time-absorbing processes such as that indexing of my book, creating the illustration list and backing up my work on diskettes as I progressed. I worked through my final History of Little Paxton sections on the Pre-War History, Little Paxton Cricket Bat heritage and my ‘Village Institutions and Events’ book chapter whilst making contact with four different printers for their latest price and delivery quotations. I then spent several days completing the index section of my book, which is one of its strengths, before working until 5am printing out and pasting in illustrations etc to create camera-ready manuscript for collection by the chosen printer’s representative. I could not keep working without break and so I had breaks for a couple of hours resting to watch England beat France in the rugby union international and then watching England in a World Cup qualifying football match live on the TV. There was still the morning mail to be sorted, and some days being interrupted by visitors, such as my council colleagues and my friend Nigel but they made a break
My next project was to be the Democrat regional coordinator for the County Council election campaign in May. Percy then brought news of a Gransden Ward District by-election being called and, after meeting Desmond Merrill of Great Gransden to discuss his council candidacy and drafting his election addresses prior to meeting him, he was pleased and will now stand for the Democrats. I began plans for this by-election and the County Council Election campaign by hosting a meeting of the SLD activists to get information ready. Also working on Percy Meyer’s first election address for our first deadline with Michael and Percy who came round to help with the copy, A big job clearing up in my office and conservatory and then finishing work on a second election address after which I go out to distribute leaflets to our delivery helpers. Then working inside on Michael Pope’s second leaflet and liaising with Des Merrill about his campaign. At the same time, sending off and delivering press releases, meeting a new delivery volunteer as part of a whole evening communicating with election volunteers and helpers before receiving a whole trailer full of election poster boards from party colleagues. Once I had collected our printed leaflets and election materials, I made up the canvas kits for the start of canvassing and flag board placement and the campaign was good to go! Nationally, the Democrats offered of electoral cooperation in by-elections with the SDP was supported by a majority of both party members which puts yet more pressure on Dr David Owen. I took a trip to Cambridge one evening to update my Apple Mac for a faster version..,..
The Council work continued to progress well. I was already working on my proposed changes to Standing Orders and discussing this with the District Council officers. I attended a planning meeting and said my piece on the School Lane flat development but could only get three councillors supporting my view and so the matter was overruled, but my efforts were appreciated by residents. By now, I was busy with several phone calls on planning matters and won a battle for retaining a vital restrictive covenant for local residents. I made a good contribution to the Environmental Services Committee Meeting of the District Council, advocating measures to prevent antisocial dog fouling and spoke to the papers about water quality and the Ramply street name dispute. I attended a very disorganised Personnel Committee meeting, which was another issue to follow up on. I contributed significantly to the Little Paxton Village Hall Committee meeting, helping them to find a committee and a way forward and had good Parish Council meetings, who were very supportive of Michael Pope’s re-election campaign. I was offered a Buckden School Governorship but not a Paxton one, and attended committee meetings of the St Neots Museum, avoiding offers to take the chair! I visited the Bunnage family after hearing news of the fire that had scorched and badly soiled one of their bedrooms.
Stories of mass redundancies in the news this month; 1,400 from British Coal and 900 more from Courtaulds January’s British trade deficit is £1.7 billion in the red but the stock exchange advances despite this news. News this month of another train crash, this one in Purley, Surrey, with six dead and dozens injured that brings this government’s level of investment and safety record into close question as they lose ground on several opinion polls on public services and of the suspicion of the train driver ignoring a red light for yesterday’s crash; but union leaders are blaming the Thatcher government for reducing manning levels. The previous history of poor train safety had been revealed about Purley in 1985. Then yet another train crash with two dead and 52 more hurt, blamed again on lack of investment. The new route for the approach line to the Channel Tunnel has been confirmed and the government insists that the British Rail Channel Tunnel link will go underground but will not provide any money. Former Prime Minister Ted Heath criticises the lack of government funding for the Channel Tunnel and the government causes more controversy with a plan to use unqualified staff as trainee teachers in schools. The 11th rise in prescription charges since Thatcher took over in 1979 has been widely criticised. Large sums of money were raised for the Comic Relief charity with the old and homeless people of the UK also being catered for which is a disgraceful requirement. Prince Charles calls for compulsory CFC reductions and Prince Philip criticises intensive farming as soya-based milk for babies has been found to contain 100 times more aluminium than breastmilk.Two of Ulster’s high-ranking policemen are ambushed and shot, there is a sectarian shooting of three men in Ulster and the examination of Ulster Unionist police officers begins over a ‘shoot to kill’ attack. Secretary Paul Channon at the centre of an air transport row over withholding warnings prior to the Lockerbie plane bombing, security is ramped up for the Easter weekend and questions remain after a Lockerbie air crash warning was not passed on. The eventual 1985 Manchester air crash report was published and British Aerospace win Airbus orders with Rolls-Royce engines. The final remains of Piper Alpha are blown up and three people have died as a car pursued by police collides with another. An explosive lorry catches fire and explodes in Peterborough, high winds at Alton Towers strand 27 people on its cable car ride who had to be rescued with ropes and harnesses Animal rights protestors have been found to have started the two Edinburgh laboratory fires, the Bishop of Durham casts doubt on the ‘fact’ of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and 3,000 Muslims in Dewsbury, Warwickshire, burn an effigy of Salman Rushdie. British motor racing driver Nigel Mansell in a Ferrari wins the first Grand Prix race of the season.
The UK turns down talks with Iran as the East West arms talks open in Geneva and a yacht (containing five members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family and for Britain’s) has been seized by the Iranian Navy en route from Bahrain to Kuwait in the Gulf Sea as the worst violence in 40 years strikes the Lebanese war-torn nation. US President Bush is going back on Reagans commitment to the Contras, the disgraced Olympic sprinter, Ben Johnston, has been reported as taking body-building steroids for eight years. South African President Botha refuses to stand down after a heart attack and USSR rebel Boris Yeltsin wins 87% of the vote against the establishment’s Communist Party nominees to win a Moscow seat in the ‘new-style’ Soviet elections