Margaret Thatcher with foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe during a trip to Moscow in 1987
Margaret Thatcher with foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe during a trip to Moscow in 1987

After spending time with the Koi in the conservatory on a dark morning at first light, the family had breakfast with Freda before we gave her a lift to the station to start her journey home. This morning working on my new computerised investment and income summary spreadsheets and then visiting Mum and Dad this afternoon, when Mum behaved very badly and embarrassed Dad.

As Thatcher’s government faces political crisis, Howe and Hazeltine speak out and opposition politicians make hay in the sunshine. The day ends with a stormy gale and around the country boats are sunk and lives are lost as a consequence

I slept all right but awoke early again and so I took my morning drink at the same time as Diana. Soon Debbie was knocking on the bedroom door itching to go to the stables again and I had my shower and shave on a dark morning before going down. I went to the Koi pond and fed them in the first light; Dawn comes an hour earlier there than in the house and dusk an hour later due to the open glazed aspect. We had breakfast of croissants as ate with Freda and the whole family but stuck to her more familiar toast as she was planning her journey home today. Di gave Freda a lift to the station and she caught a train at about 9:30am.

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I spent this morning working on my investment and income summaries. These are now done in a computer spreadsheet and I update the figures every three months. It was very windy and stormy today and, as we plan to set off to collect Dad from Weald House, I decided will be better to see him there so that the wind would not hurt his head. I was to regret this because mum behaved very badly during our visit. She seemed to ignore the presence of Di, Dan and Della for a while and became full of recriminations until I changed the subject and got everybody playing dominoes. There will be many trying days ahead. After tea, I finished my accounts work and printed out the results. Finally, I prepared a new action list and then wrote today’s Journal whilst watching TV with Di. Today poor Dad was embarrassed by mum and tried apologising as we left Weald House today. She can be very selfish at times. On the brighter side, Mum was manoeuvring her wheelchair today and took a phone call from Doris, her Stanton home help.

The news today was over the continuing political crisis over the future of the Thatcher government. Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe, speaks out in favour of Britain joining the EMS and ‘lone wolf’ Michael Heseltine does the same whilst the opposition politicians make hay in the sunshine. The day ends with a stormy gale and around the country boats are sunk and lives are lost as a consequence