A cold and frosty month with some fog but also some sunny days too. I will always remember this month for the one when my father was dying, though his funeral was early the following one. We had celebrated his last birthday earlier, he had lots of visits once we had re-united him with Mum at Weald House Nursing Home and I organised their DHSS claims, clothes and brought belongings from their caravan and they were able to see their grandchildren and I was with him there right up to the end. Dad passed away at nearly 9am peacefully with Mum and I on a sunny day in Room 20 of Weald House after several foggy and damp ones. The loss was still immense if tempered by the time and opportunity I had to prepare for and then organise the most beautiful funeral you could ever imagine. The cards of notification brought numerous tributes, sympathisers flowers and donations and an attendance of more than 70 at St James’s church more than 60 at the cemetery and over 50 at the Hayling View for the Wake.
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By way of very good contrasting news, politically, I organised a landslide victory for our candidate Derek Giles in the Eaton Socon by-election, winning by some 500 odd votes to 99 – an absolute humiliation for the Tories. I had held Derek’s hand during the election and encouraged him and then ran his very successful Election-Day campaign. Chairing their fund-raising committee, I also produced all of the literature and materials and then ran the St Neots Museum launch at The Priory Centre, which went very well. There was sad news of the death of Frank ‘Polly’ Hall, for whom I wrote an obituary for the funeral at St James’s Church where Peter Lewis, the vicar, conducted a nice service and read the text of my obituary as a tribute. I also gave a talk this month on Little Paxton history to the local cub scouts which they thoroughly enjoyed. I still had to attend all sorts of meetings, generate press releases and field press calls and had to turn down a request from the Southwest Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats to become their parliamentary candidate!
Personally, I celebrated my 43rd birthday, had fun with fireworks with my family at my friend, Nigel’s hail Weston House, at his Guy Fawkes night party and there was other opportunities for family fun and leisure. I went to Norfolk via Cambridge with the signed conveyance and new trust deed for Heronshaw and there collected the keys from Elizabeth Kerr and took occupation and ownership of Heronshaw in Horning. Daniel got offers to study Computing at the Universities of Sussex and Warwick but opted for the UEA in Norwich, which pleased me. I was taking Debbie and Della to the riding stables at Offord and I got The Lady’s winter cover renovated and it fitted well.
Thatcher had become increasingly isolated and out of touch. The stridency of her tone and policy seems strangely out of keeping with the new spirit of peace, disarmament, glasnost and perestroika. I resisted a call to stand as our local member of Parliament as I felt it was not possible to win in this region at this time. Social cohesion had been failing in this country, Jaguar was being taken over by Ford, the pound and shares were falling again as government intervention on the foreign exchange markets had depleted our gold reserves by a record monthly amount. The ambulanceman’s pay dispute escalated and police and army ambulances were brought in heralding a crisis in the ambulance service, with the army on the streets of London as ‘ambulance drivers’ until the London service failed altogether and people were dying. A combined front of doctors, nurses and midwives then attacked the government in opposition to the proposed NHS reforms. Mrs Thatcher was now discussing the possibility that she might step down after the next election and this led to her being challenged by a ‘stalking horse’ for the Conservative leadership with backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer chosen to oppose her to gauge opposition.
After another wave of IRA attacks, Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Brooke, has been discussing the possibility of having negotiations with Sinn Fein. Internationally, the great European Communist Blocs are disintegrating; thousands more East Germans fled to the West and East Germany opened its borders for international travel after 10 new openings in the Berlin wall had been created. A non-Communist was elected Speaker and the reforming Hans Modrow appointed as Prime Minister whilst 200,000 people marched in Leipzig in favour of reforms and free elections. West German Chancellor Kohl assured Poland that their borders are safe but called for a Federation and German unification but Thatcher will be resisting calls for that. More demonstrations take place in Czechoslovakia (300,000 in Prague), then the Communist leadership of Czechoslovakia resigned. and the new leader is announced as Karel Urbanek whilst the previously exiled leader Alexander Dubcek addressed a crowd of 250,000 in Prague and slated the USSR and former regimes for putting down past reforms. The people of Afghanistan suffering a new famine and drought and great typhoons ravage Thailand with more than 200 lost at sea from 20 missing vessels and there is the assassination of the new Lebanese president by a car bomb which killed 23 others in the process
There were some sunny days between cold and frosty mornings but thankfully a beautiful warm, sunny and still day prevailed for the Remembrance Day services. There were some very foggy days as well which did not normally clear until much later after lunch but then the sun warmed us when it did break through.
During the month, we had commemorated my Dad’s last birthday on the 2nd November and it was great to see that he was also being visited by his old ambulance colleague, Derek on that day; I also reviewed my parents’ tax and benefit position with my accountant Roger Brittain and they acted on his advice. Their DHSS claim total of £445 paid their combined nursing home fees at Weald House and they had a little spending money left. I was checking their caravan and collecting some things for them when needed. Diana, I and the children often went to see Mum and Dad at Weald House and the visits went well apart from one occasion when Mum had behaved rather badly in front of her grandchildren (Jane and John) and neighbour Fred who had been visiting and I had to take her to one side and tell her off afterwards which she was better. We made allowances for Mum being increasingly tired as Dad became more and more groggy towards the end. My poor Dad declined very quickly with his increasing doses of morphine to control the pain. One afternoon, when taking Di and the girls to see Dad and Mum we found Dad’s sister, Ivy, and her family there and Mum was much recovered from her back problems, but Dad’s face was also further swollen on that side and he seemed so weak.
Mum was now able to travel from Weald House to The Hayling View in her wheelchair by special taxi and so we could agree plans and arrangements for Dad’s forthcoming and inevitable funeral, meeting with the undertakers and the Rev Peter Lewis. We had no luck in getting a churchyard plot for the family, and so I arranged burial plots at Little Paxton cemetery, but I was also detailing our family contacts ready for Dad’s funeral. We had known that Dad’s cancer was terminal, once all hope of operations had been ruled out. Between times, it was good for Mum to be playing Scrabble and Monopoly with her grandchildren whilst also enjoying the fresh air and eating a good nourishing lunch away from Weald House. After a false alarm one day, when I rushed over to console Mum and to see Dad who we thought was going to pass away, he stayed resting and breathing deeply until the following day when he was inactive but peaceful and Mum was quite composed. Dad passed away at nearly 9am peacefully with Mum and I on a sunny day in Room 20 of Weald House after several foggy and damp ones. The loss was still immense if tempered by the time I had to prepare for and then organise the most beautiful funeral you could ever imagine. The cards of notification brought numerous tributes, sympathisers flowers and donations and an attendance of more than 70 at St James’s church; more than 60 at the cemetery and over 50 at the Hayling View for the Wake. Mum drew great comfort from this show of concern and affection as did Freda and I. After all this emotion, there was the task of picking up the pieces – Mum planning to go back to Stanton with Freda and Alf for a trial and then me to my work.
Dr Lyle came to certify Dad’s death and then until the funeral directors came to collect Dad and take him away to the chapel of rest at the Hail Weston undertakers. Later the staff buttonholed me and suggested that we put Mum somewhere else more suitable, as Weald House is full of elderly and confused people and Mum now needs some sheltered accommodation with more social facilities etc. I was up late and tired until the funeral director arrived the following day at 9am and then my Mum by taxi by 9.20am when we made Dad’s funeral arrangements for 12pm noon on Monday, 4th December after which I got the cards printed, envelopes addressed and the whole lot posted out by the deadline for the St Neots collections. After a better night sleep, I drove to St Neots to register Dad’s death but managed to give the registrar the wrong date of birth which caused a stir later. After taking Di to lunch we called Weald House where Mum had sorted out Dad’s clothes for disposal. Once home, I met the Rev Peter Lewis who had drafted the funeral service for me to type up and get printed. There followed another poor night worrying about Dad’s funeral arrangements, but I welcomed Mum’s visit by special taxi again with Della’s help and then had coffee with Di after which I picked up Debbie, and Daniel then arrived from school such that we all had lunch together. I had a further visit from Mum from Weald House who was rather difficult and challenging, carping on quite unnecessarily about my level of churchgoing! Thankfully, The Rev Peter Lewis arrived, and we planned Dad’s service details. Jane and John also arrived and stayed for lunch before I visited the Registrar’s office to progress the arrangements and secure the green registration document to take to the undertakers and reserve plots in Little Paxton cemetery; laying out the Order of Service myself that evening. As well as progressing my Dad’s funeral arrangements we also bought a smart black outfit for Mum to wear.
By way of very good contrasting news, I organised a landslide victory this month for our candidate Derek Giles in the Eaton Socon by-election, winning by some 500 odd votes to 99 – an absolute humiliation for the Tories. On a showery day with some sun, after preparing some election materials, I spent the first day of canvassing in Eaton Socon with Derek Giles, gaining support and showing him the ropes so that he could continue by himself afterwards. I returned a call later to Derek, who was upset about struggling in the rain the following afternoon canvassing without much success, but I laid out his second leaflet and took it round to show him. Derek Giles’s canvassing went better the day after, and his morale was high again. I made a later start on another much calmer and more settled day and went canvassing with Michael Pope with some good results. I drove over the following day to spend the morning canvassing in Eaton Socon for Derek Giles. We also experienced some encouraging results then and had two leaflets delivered and two thirds of the area canvassed before the opposition even started their campaign! I wrote a new press release for his campaign and then drove over to Eaton Socon the following afternoon and evening and did some more canvassing. I spent that evening working on Derek Giles latest leaflet and circulating it for comments and corrections before running a Liberal Democrat campaign meeting that evening. Then there was a splendid polling day for Derek Giles and the Liberal Democrats as we soundly beat the Tories in Eaton Socon and got Derek elected. I was there all day and evening organising the election victory. It was sweet revenge for the acrimonious behaviour of Tory Bill Longford trying to suppress my issues at the Southern Area District Councillors earlier.
This was a historical month in more than one way. Chairing their fund-raising committee, I produced a new draft for the St Neots Museum fundraising form before and took it over to agree some details with David Rudd, the St Neots Museum chairman. I then worked at the St Neots Museum launch project all day, producing press information, VIP invitations, and copy for a brochure and subscription form. That evening, I prepared the badges and nameplates for the St Neots Museum launch later, to The Priory Centre, which went very well, There was sad news of the death of Frank ‘Polly’ Hall, for whom I wrote an obituary, after having to decline an invitation to give Frank Hall’s obituary as a tribute during the service but I wrote the address, dressed in my black tie and suit and then drove down to St James’s Church for the funeral where Peter Lewis, the vicar, conducted a nice service and read the text of my obituary as a tribute. I then rushed back for that evening’s Paxton planning meeting with HDC’s planning policy chief, Richard Probyn, who got a right grilling over his controversial proposals for village expansion in line with my Parish Council briefing. Frank would have loved that. I also gave a talk this month on Little Paxton history to the local cub scouts which they thoroughly enjoyed.
There were also many further District Council and local party activities that required my time. Paxton Parish Council meetings, Priory Doom meetings, at which I spoke. I visited constituents about neighbourhood problems and then a PULP residents meeting one evening. I was writing press releases about council activities and, after delivering them, I came home to a barrage of telephone calls and a call from the Southwest Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats wanting me to become their parliamentary candidate! I still had to put together agenda items for District Council meetings, and then put on a first-class show in terms of asking questions and pressing motions. I went by car to a meeting with the senior officers of the Huntingdon District Police to discuss Little Paxton policing. I had a Governors Meeting of Buckden School and then the Annual Parent Governors Meeting where I supported their concern about the withdrawal of school meals and the plans for introducing the national curriculum and there was a host of media phone calls
This month, I celebrated my 43rd birthday on Friday 3rd November after a strangely unsettled night, when I slept better after troubling Diana for sex in the early morning (!) and then went down to breakfast for my birthday wishes but my cards and presents had to wait until later. There was a little time for leisure at Huntingdon cinema one evening where Di and I enjoyed the British film, ‘Wendy Valentine’. There was also Nigel’s fireworks – one evening at Hail Weston House where we went as a family for a firework party with Nigel Smith and his family on Guy Fawkes night and then there was his surprise 40th birthday party one evening where the ‘stripper-gram girl’ made a good impression. After a visit to St Neots with Di to do some shopping and select a painting for Nigel’s birthday, we took this over to Hail Weston House with some cards and attached two ‘40 today’ streamers to the gate posts! Della is daily helping me feed the conservatory fish and watered the plants. a fine enough day for me to get a rather reluctant Daniel to help me as we winched out the Little Lady and the sports boat, putting both on their trolleys for the winter. Then back to St Neots to let Dr McKay operate on my leg, cutting out the mole, To Norfolk via Cambridge with the signed conveyance and new trust deed and there to collect the keys from Elizabeth Kerr and take occupation of Heronshaw, which was to become my new Norfolk retreat.
Daniel got an offer to study Computing at UEA and had his second university interview invitation, this time from the University of Sussex and I drove Daniel him Warwick where we agreed the University course might be good but the place had something to be desired and so he settled on UEA at Norwich. I took Di to lunch at the Berney Inn in Wyboston, and the road conditions being very full, we put off our trip to Cambridge and went to St Neots for morning coffee instead. A brief visit to Avenue fisheries in Sandy where I was unimpressed the latest consignment of Koi from Japan and then watching and roasting chestnuts on my open fire before we went to the Little Paxton November Fayre which raised funds for The Village Hall and other local charities. We met up with Di’s parents Cambridge and had lunch at the Copper Kettle on another occasion. I was always taking Debbie and Della to the riding stables at Offord and, on a fairly fine day, Della enjoying her third riding lesson on Minty and would like to have had another as I took Della to the stables in hope of a riding lesson for her but Fiona failed to show. We went to the remembrance service at St James’s church where Debbie was there as a uniformed brownie and enjoyed an evening with the family watching the Kimbolton teaching staff, as the ‘Montague players’ put on an evening of humour and music called ‘we have ways of making you laugh’ when our children enjoyed their teachers making ‘fools’ of themselves. We also enjoyed The Kimbolton School Society firework display as usual. I spent the odd morning washing my Range Rover, also watched the TV memorial service at the Cenotaph and went to the nurse to have the stitches in my leg removed. Steve from the Simpers boat cover company came and measured up the extent and type of renovations necessary for The Lady winter cover and we then fitted our newly-altered winter cover, which worked well. I designed and built a conservatory bridge and house access ramp as a disabled access ramp for the house.
Our local political success was reflected the national position where Thatcher became increasingly isolated and out of touch. The stridency of her tone and policy plans seems strangely out of keeping with the new spirit of peace, disarmament, glasnost and perestroika. It could be said that my old Dad had taken down Thatcherism with him as this 1980s Thatcherite experience seemed to be now ‘dead in the water’. This month, I resisted a call to stand as our local member of Parliament as I felt it was not possible to win in this region at this time. Social cohesion had been failing in this country; there was tragic news of the death by neglect in Gloucester of a daughter whose mentally ill parent was incapable of her care and of the courts having to write off the obligations of certain local authorities who had entered speculative interest rate deals beyond their powers. Rail and tube fares rose 10% then Jaguar was taken over by Ford after the government removed the company’s defence from takeover. The pound and shares were falling again as government intervention on the foreign exchange markets has depressed our gold reserves by a record monthly amount. The ambulancemen’s’ pay rise was restricted to 6½%, well behind that of the railwaymen and fireman, let alone inflation and the management have even threatened London ambulanceman with pay cuts if they take action in response. Despite this threat, the ambulanceman’s dispute escalated and police and army ambulances were brought in heralding a crisis in the ambulance service, with the army being on the streets of London as ‘ambulance drivers’ whilst Unions confer about further action.
Health Secretary Clarke turned down a call for talks as some hospitals, doctors and members of the public started contacting stations directly and ambulanceman are responding to their calls. The ambulance industrial action is then stepped up as controllers join the dispute and the government has to back down and agrees to talks with the ambulance unions without preconditions after controllers threatened to route calls to ambulancemen and away from the police and army black legs because of public safety but the talks then end in stalemate with the ambulance management and ambulanceman blaming each other for a breakdown in the service. In the end, the London Ambulance controllers walked out in sympathy with the ambulancemen as they say that people are dying due to an inefficient 999 service and that they want no part of it. A combined front of doctors, nurses and midwives then attacked the government in opposition to the proposed NHS reforms. Mrs Thatcher was now discussing the possibility that she might step down after the next election. Ex-Chancellor, Nigel Lawson then explained why he resigned because he was not able to suffer Thatcher’s economic adviser Prof Alan Waters interfering with his efforts anymore. The Tories were now being castigated for their political dogma and intransigence as opinion polls showed them still 13% behind Labour. The news is then dominated by the row amongst the Tory party as to Thatcher being challenged by a ‘stalking horse’ for the Conservative leadership and backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer is chosen to oppose her in a leadership election to gauge the level of opposition in her first contest since taking over 14 years ago despite the calls by loyalists not to do so. Thatcher’s popularity is at rock bottom with Hazeltine threatening her leadership and there are internal wrangles of Thatcher and her party over Europe. New Chancellor Major keeps a tight hold on the economy in his autumn statement and the fear of recession grows. The UK government has bowed to the inevitable and withdrawn nuclear electric power from the privatisation plans. Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Brooke, is discussing the possibility of having negotiations with Sinn Fein, IRA bombs in Newry and Colchester. At the first, three soldiers were killed and at the second a soldier and his wife badly injured but a car bomb attack on the Lieutenant General of the Army in London mercifully failed. The findings of the Clapham railway crash are published, and four Midlands detectives are charged with fabricating evidence.
Internationally, the great European Communist Blocs are disintegrating; thousands more East Germans fled to the West and East Germany opened its borders for international travel as the East German government announced foreign travel relaxations through Czechoslovakia. Then about 3 million visited West Germany from the East after 10 new openings in the Berlin wall had been created but only 18,000 wanted to emigrate permanently. Barriers were thrown open and Berliners hugged and kissed each other in triumph and joy. There followed the resignation of the East German government, with a new 11-man reformist governing body being appointed for East Germany as around 300 flee that country per day. A non-Communist was elected Speaker and the reforming Hans Modrow appointed as Prime Minister whilst 200,000 people marched in Leipzig in favour of reforms and free elections. President Mitterrand of France arranged for all 12 heads of government to meet in Paris on Saturday to discuss the future implications, but Thatcher will be resisting calls for German reunification and further European integration. West German Chancellor Kohl has assured Poland that her borders are safe but calls for a Federation and German unification. More demonstrations take place in Czechoslovakia (300,000 in Prague) with the army pledged to defend communism but then the Communist leadership of Czechoslovakia resigned and the new leader is announced as Karel Urbanek whilst the previously-exiled leader Alexander Dubcek addressed a crowd of 250,000 in Prague and called on his compatriots to unite to improve their country. Dubcek slated the USSR and former regimes for putting down past reforms The Czech Premier agrees to end the dominating role of the state Communist Party.
The news was then of the plight of the people of Afghanistan suffering a new famine and drought great typhoons in Thailand with more than 200 missing at sea from 20 missing vessels; also of a scandal involving criminally sold contaminated cattle feeds containing lead sulphate. The rest of the news is of a world full of unrest and violence and. at the EEC summit, Thatcher was holding things up again. The other news today is of the assassination of the new Lebanese president by car bomb which killed 23 others in the process, Bush and Gorbachev will meet on a warship off Malta soon and, in the US, Bush meets Thatcher and they agree with the need to keep NATO alive