The year catching up after the death of my father, settling Mum back into Stanton and Freda and her family into Redgrave. Daniel was off to UEA, Debbie starting Kimbolton and we said farewell to The Lady and bought The Paxton Princess for our summer cruising in the heatwave.
Debbie exchanged Sundance’s livery in Offord for a much better stable at Staughton. I was spending more time in Horning, renovating the thatched garage and planning the replacement of Heronshaw. T
he Poll Tax was eventually Thatcher’s downfall, as she was replaced by John Major which brought local attention and this time, unlike her Falklands exploits posturing for the Gulf War did not save her and, locally, I had election success as well and there was great news later about the Channel Tunnel breakthrough.
The Soviet Union suffered an escalating series of moves that broke up this superpower. Lech Walensa, the former Solidarity leader, won the Polish presidential election and Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, swept to victory after reunification in the first all-German election since 1932
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Following on from the events of 1989, this year was dominated by the aftermath of the death of my father. So many things had been put off as I tended Dad day after day; that I never really caught up with the backlog until the end of this year. On top of this, it had been such an eventful year anyway. I managed to re-settle Mum back home and bring Freda and family up to join her in Suffolk with the idea of buying a P.O./General Stores in this area to be able to look after Mum. We prepared Daniel for his driving test and Debbie as her Kimbolton Entrance Exam and we had the first of our several family holidays aboard the newly named ‘Paxton Princess’. Diana was unhappy with our new public lifestyle and marriage, and Debbie was experiencing problems with her livery with Fiona in Offord for her pony Sundance and so we moved him to better circumstances at Great Staughton with safe hacks on nearby farmer’s fields. We sold "The Lady" for £15,000 after eleven year's ownership and much sole searching but I skippered my first solo trip around the coast to bring the Paxton Princess home to the Great Ouse and then we cruised aboard her for the entire month of August as the heatwave continued. Daniel was leaving Kimbolton School, having secured his place in University and also passed his driving test and so was enjoying the freedom of his car. He brought home his new girlfriend Angela, who was studying Chemistry and Debbie happily started Main School I was renovating the old thatched garage in September, replacing the lower wall sections and raising the whole on new foundations of sleepers on new brickwork and we got The Hayling View professionally decorated.
The year started with an epidemic of "Mad Cow Disease", BSE, and a back-bench revolt by over 30 Tory M.P.'s opposing Thatcher’s Poll Tax. It continued with a stunning defeat of the Tories in a by-election and a full-blown Poll Tax riot in Trafalgar Square as a well-attended peaceful demonstration then deteriorated into a violent protest. Locally, my election plans were in place as I started canvassing with colleagues during April in Priory, The Offords and Bury Ward and designing and producing three waves of election Focus’s. These efforts came to fruition in May when I had my election success and trebled my party's representation on the District Council from one to three seats which was most gratifying. France unilaterally implemented a complete ban on the import of British Beef due to the "Mad Cow" disease after more schools had withdrawn British beef from meals and government assurances were not being believed which was another Thatcher legacy after deregulation.
The Tories had ridden their Local Election set-back and started coming back at Labour but soon mass redundancies for 7,500 miners, 1,125 Welsh steel workers and then 770 jobs job losses at the Ravenscraig steel strip mill, changed the mood. As tension rose, Thatcher sends another 20 tornado attack aircraft, 6,000 troops and 120 tanks to the Gulf as her opening gambit for the forthcoming election campaign to divert attention from domestic inflation, which at 10.6%, the highest figure since the early 1980s, and we now had a record balance of payments deficit, high inflation, and rising unemployment as well as a shrinking economy in real terms! Thatcher finally fell at last in November; not at the hands of the electorate but at those of her own party who feared she would have lost them the next election. They chose a local man and acquaintance of mine, John Major, to replace her which causes political turmoil locally. There was great news later about the Channel Tunnel breakthrough, the government under Major was continuing the Tories’ privatisations of state assets, as unemployment was rising and the pound Sterling at the bottom of its ERM range.
The Gulf crisis unfolded during the month with the eventual invasion of Kuwait and a world outcry. The Soviet Union suffered an escalating series of moves that broke up this superpower with the three Baltic States plan their anti-Soviet independence as Gorbachev's internal rival, Boris Yeltsin, won a key party ballot. The two Germanies signed a treaty as the start of the process of financial unification which culminated in a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in its restored capital, Berlin. Former West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, swept to victory in the first all-German election since 1932 and Lech Walensa, the former Solidarity leader, won the Polish presidential election.
The year ended with a remarkable number of broken weather records, storms, floods and high drama and we look to a forthcoming year of equal success but of less drama to go with it. First, we have to get past the imminent crisis in The Gulf which could yet be the start of World War III and then we have to see what will happen in the USSR. meantime, the British economy is in the throws of a recession that will prove to be both longer and deeper than that which was being forecast even a month or two ago. For the first time in a decade, the London stock market has ended the year with a net reduction in value and the bubble burst in Japan with their stocks seeing a 30% reduction.
January was a very mild but windy and stormy month and, with stories of 45 deaths elsewhere in the UK, I had cause to worry about the trees overhanging my conservatory. I was producing Focus newsletters and making my mark as a HDC Councillor but had still spent time in Norfolk preparing the new boat for the season ahead and seen Mum safely installed back into Stanton with her friends and neighbours. Daniel's mock "A"-levels were a worry as he already knew what was needed for the UEA. Debbie, and now Della, were enjoying their horse-riding. Health Minister Kenneth Clarke was being an arse over the pay of ambulancemen leading to 30,000 demonstrating in Trafalgar Square, there is an epidemic of "Mad Cow Disease", BSE, and the government’s shoot-to-kill policy against the IRA sees Undercover soldiers in civilian clothes pumped further bullets into prostrate unarmed men. The Tory government experienced a back-bench revolt by over 30 Tory M.P.'s opposing the Poll Tax and Thatcher had to climb down at last on the matter of Football I.D. cards. Gorbechev ends the month in Lithuania trying to persuade them out of breaking away from the Soviet Union as riots took place for three days along 85 miles of the Azerbaijan/Iran border USSR. 43 die in a Spanish discotheque fire, 100 are feared dead in yet another Dhaka Bangladesh ferry sinking.
February was an even more stormy month than January and the unsettled weather seemed to be linked to the extreme mildness as the weather cycle was upset with torrents of rain. 14 were killed in this country and 35 across Europe as flooding inundated some areas of Wales. I scalded my foot badly and it need constant hospital and doctor’s examination and re-dressing but it did not stop my final boat preparations nor prevent me preparing the FOCUS leaflets, supported by advertising revenue for the first time. I was chairing campaigning meetings, helping colleagues from neighbouring areas, but still resisting offers to stand for parliament! Daniel helped drive me around for appointments as he was preparing for his driving test and Debbie as her Kimbolton Entrance Exam. There were worries this month over Debbie’s treatment at the Offord riding stables, which did not seem to welcome her and Sundance anymore. Diana also had her sore throat and Della her infections, but at least Freda was planning to come up to East Anglia and has the idea of buying a P.O./General Stores in this area to be able to look after Mum. We had our first family holiday aboard the newly named ‘Paxton Princess’. The world's exchanges looked very shaky again, which was the background to Abbey National put their mortgage interest rates up by nearly 1% to 15.5%, with most public professionals getting 9 to 11% increases but no decent money yet for the ambulancemen. Thatcher was circumventing sanctions against South Africa against international wishes but Nelson Mandela was freed. Gorbachev was trying to reform Russia by removing article 6 in the constitution that gives Communism supremacy and agreeing troop reductions in Vienna to make the Warsaw Pact becomes less of a threat to the West. as the troubles and reforms of the USSR gained ground. A tanker chartered by British Petroleum has shed 320,000 gallons of oil off of a sensitive part of the Californian coastline. All 14 A320 Airbus aircraft in India have been grounded following safety fears when one crashed, killing 90 passengers
March Was a mostly very mild month for the time of year heralding an early welcome for migrant birds from Africa as I recovered from my foot injury in and was sharing my time between home and Heronshaw. I had completed the Paxton Princess for a cruising season and cleared out the shed and garage and prepared the bungalow ready for Freda and family to stay there. Della and Debbie were doing very well at school and at their riding lessons, though Daniel needed to work much harder at his revision. He had passed his driving test but then had his first car accident soon after. Until Freda could get down to help with my Mum, I took every chance to drop into to see her in Stanton. My political work was already showed good signs of me getting several more colleagues on the Huntingdonshire District Council soon, with comprehensive leafleting, press stories and interviews and now, we had started canvassing. I had hatched up the plans for this year's local elections and made the necessary arrangements with other opposition parties. I was an active participant in Council meetings, and I was also helping the Parish Council and Local History Society. There was a stunning defeat of the Tories in a by-election and a full-blown Poll Tax riot in Trafalgar Square as a well-attended peaceful demonstration then deteriorated into a violent protest. Thatcher was in deep political trouble as the Poll Tax was introduced from which she was never to recover. The Chinese will not recognise the latest British plan to give up to 50,000 Hong Kong families British Passports when they take over the colony in 1997. Nelson Mandela has been elected deputy president of the ANC but political progress there is blighted as South African police open fire on several thousand black anti-apartheid demonstrators with 8 being killed and many more injured. Soviet troops forcefully occupied Lithuanian party and government buildings. Prolonged turmoil in the Japanese financial markets drove some investors to panic. A New York nightclub fire has killed 87 people and arson is expected.
April started cold and frosty, with icy northern winds and then continued miserably with north-easterly winds, gales and rain, before ending up warm and sunny. There were exceptionally high-water levels widely felt to be due to global warming and, after floods in New South Wales, Australia, the worst floods for 40 years hit Tasmania and 4,000 homes have been washed away. Scorching 60mph winds in Bangladesh killed 15, injured hundreds some with burns. My time was split between many competing priorities. My gardener of many years standing resigned and we began the process of managing ourselves. Freda and Alf had moved into Heronshaw and, with my help, had negotiated to buy Redgrave Stores and Post Office. We had an early boat trip cruising throughout the Norfolk Broads but the cold wind gave us all coughs but at least the boat worked well. My election plans were in place as I was canvassing with colleagues in Priory, The Offords and Bury Ward and designing and producing three waves of election Focus’s. This against a background of Thatcher being still in deep political trouble over the Poll Tax. A possible share rally turned into a slide again as the second largest ever UK trade deficit of £2.2Billion and plans for a power workers strike rocked the City again. Both teaching unions already voted for strike action over cutbacks. The prisons were in turmoil with riots at Strangeways in Manchester, Dartmoor, Bristol, Leeds and Cardiff with officers injured and prisoners dead in two of them after sex offenders were attacked. Reagan and Gorbachev agree to meet in May for a second summit, and reconciliation was in the air between the US and USSR over the future of East Germany after the first elections were scheduled to take place there
May was a particularly busy month in a busy year. I tried to keep working on gloriously hot and sunny days between some warm and stuffy nights with family hay fever being supplemented by bad coughs and colds. The drought started with parched lawns and it was the onslaught of "Mad Cow Disease" that was the latest pestilence to strike. I had my election success and trebled my party's representation on the District Council from one to three seats which was most gratifying. Diana was unhappy with our new public lifestyle and marriage but we still managed to get Debbie's 12th Birthday Celebrations organised although we were experiencing problems with her livery with Fiona in Offord after beating her Dad Roland Smith in the election! I had my first sea trip in the Paxton Princess around the North Norfolk coast to Kings Lynn via Blakeney and then back to Great Yarmouth via Wells; taking a coupling failure and grounding at Blakeney Pit in our stride and gained an RYA Day Skipper's ticket on the strength of it.! In all, I had two long Norfolk visits in May, interspersed by hectic gardening exploits. Freda and Alf were installed at Redgrave but, alarmingly, Alf regarded the Redgrave venture as being totally down to Freda and wanted to play no part in it. We sold "The Lady" for £15,000 after eleven year's ownership and much sole searching. I had now decided to rebuild rather than restore Heronshaw and attended a very productive RHDRA meeting which agreed road and dyke maintenance priorities. France unilaterally implemented a complete ban on the import of British Beef due to the "Mad Cow" disease after more schools had withdrawn British beef from meals and government assurances were not being believed which was another Thatcher legacy after deregulation. The Tories had ridden their Local Election set-back and started coming back at Labour but soon mass redundancies for 7,500 miners, 1,125 Welsh steel workers and then 770 jobs job losses at the Ravenscraig steel strip mill, changed the mood and Scottish Tory MP's joined Labours in a call to keep Ravenscraig open. By this time, the Tories were under siege with Poll Tax problems and rebellion was in the air. The country was under threat of a continual IRA bombing attacks and now eventually considering direct talks on the fate of the UK hostages in the Lebanon. The Soviet Union suffered an escalating series of moves that could end up with the disintegration of this superpower with the three Baltic States plan their anti-Soviet independence as Gorbachev's internal rival, Boris Yeltsin, wins a key party ballot. The two Germanies have signed a treaty as the start of the process of financial unification. A 145mph cyclone tore through Southern India, killing 50 people and making a million homeless.
June was another eventful month as life got busier and busier. Another couple of periods away in Norfolk and much more gardening in a continuing drought with temporary gardeners in attendance until I employed a new replacement. It has been another very dry month and we have needed to do lots of watering to safeguard the bedding plants which are very backward as a result Major political progress as I gained the council committee places I wanted after the election. We publish our biggest-ever FOCUS throughout the St Neots area. I managed to successfully arrange to get the vice-chairmanship of the regional committee of the District Council and then to chair my first meeting which was to the complete astonishment of the sitting Tories! I made the decision to fit out my private office which will prove to be a revelation when it comes to fruition this summer. Freda and Alf have left Heronshaw, which now looks sadder and more forlorn without occupants, and I am no nearer a solution for it, even though I am meeting an architect there soon. I was approached by ON-SITE Training to make a contribution of time and money but was reluctant. We successfully settled Sundance into the new stables at Great Staughton, but Debbie's riding was limited as she was bitten by a dog whilst delivering my FOCUS's!
July was seen in with a drought and then a heatwave and closed with another which was fine for us aboard the Paxton Princess upon which we also started and ended the month. I skippered my first solo trip around the coast to bring the Paxton Princess home to the Great Ouse. Then later, my family cruise back round to Norfolk again, cruising downstream to Denver, out into the Wash and then around the coast, stopping for a few days in Wells-next-the-Sea before arriving in Great Yarmouth and cruising up The River Bure to Horning. In between times, at Heronshaw, I chaired a meeting of local residents and then at home I managed to attend a H D C Policy Committee meeting and also a Finance seminar and I was present to officiate at the Little Paxton Village Hall Fete, but boating was the first priority as I missed other Council meetings to make the two trips. The family are well with Debbie recovering from her finger injury although poor Di is suffering with eye irritation and has now arranged to be fitted for new contact lenses. My sister Freda and family have settled very well into their new house and business venture and are in the middle of the second visit of Mum who likes being there for the company. Whilst away, another building and renovation project as Debbie gets a new bedroom fashioned out of two and I get my office completely redecorated, furnished, and fitted. Nelson Mandela was visiting the UK and plunged into a controversy by suggesting the government have talks with the IRA. The worst housing market for 36 years severely affected The Prudential after its acquisition of estate agents, but Chancellor Major is still ruling out reductions in the interest rate although Sterling has risen to above the three Deutschmark barrier. US President, George Bush has proposed that Gorbachev address a meeting of NATO ministers and has proposed a joint peace declaration with the Warsaw Pact to formally end a decade of East-West hostility. 4,500 Albanian refugees sought refuge in western embassies and 50,000 Romanians were on the streets again protesting about their government.
August saw us staying aboard The Paxton Princess for the entire month as the heatwave continued. We ended our epic boating holiday after and a successful trip was concluded by us hearing that Daniel had been accepted for the University of East Anglia which was great news. Debbie had missed her pony, but it had been a great family holiday; perhaps our last. Diana ended up being quite fond of Heronshaw after being very dubious at first and we look forward to many more happy holidays based there. Upon our return. We still had the remainder of the tidying up to do after our improvements and the hall/utility areas to reorganise and now the employment of a new gardener. Elsewhere, the Gulf crisis unfolded during the month with the eventual invasion of Kuwait and a world outcry.
In September the weather became noticeably cooler again after the glorious summer came to an end at last, with the days warm and the nights chilly. Daniel was leaving Kimbolton Scheel, had secured his place in University and passed his driving test and so enjoying the freedom of his car and Debbie had happily started Main School by taking the school bus and now had her pony Sundance in better circumstances at Great Staughton with safe hacks on nearby farmer’s fields. Mum’s visited from Stanton for a meeting with the monumental mason to agree Dad’s gravestone and we collected Dad’s trophy from Harlequin in Norwich for her to present to the first awardee of the Historic Ambulance Society.. We tried to catch up on a huge backlog of work as My journal, investment account planning and council business was relentless and our housekeeper, Joan, left after long service and I had to terminate the gardener which left Di and I to look after this house and grounds by ourselves until I employed a new gardener, Mr Tee. I give in and decide to invest in ON-SITE Training. During two trips to Heronshaw in Horning, I was renovating the old thatched garage using mental extension plates, made for me by Jack Edwards, connecting in new wooden timbers to both raise and replace the walls. A meeting with architects conformed that the main building of Heronshaw was beyond repair and needed replacement. As the Gulf War situation deteriorated, Thatcher sends another 20 tornado attack aircraft, 6,000 troops and 120 tanks to the Gulf in what I take as her opening gambit for the forthcoming election campaign to divert attention from domestic inflation, which is 10.6%, the highest figure since the early 1980s, and we now have a record balance of payments deficit, high inflation, and rising unemployment as well as a shrinking economy in real terms! The US and Britain stance ‘reserved the right’ to invade Kuwait without the further endorsement of the United Nations even though the blockade appeared to be working. Food and medicines are now being allowed in for humanitarian reasons. as Britain and other European Community countries expelled not the Iraqi military attaches based in Europe. Iraq then invaded the French and Dutch missions in Kuwait. After a U.S. warship boards an Iraqi-flagged tanker bound for the port of Basrah. Saddam Hussein stated his willingness to strike first and confirmed his intention to damage oil fields in the region if attacked, claiming that the US will repeat Vietnam experience as the UN Security Council voted 14-1 to impose air embargo against Iraq.
October was A generally mild month with some days approaching near record temperatures for October. The family were generally happy and well as Di celebrated her 42nd birthday with a new car, Daniel settled into university at UEA and we all enjoyed a trip to London and its attractions. I divide my time between home gardening, local politics and travelling to work on Heronshaw where I renovate and raise the shed. We get The Hayling View professionally decorated which is one less thing to worry about. ON-SITE is soon missing its business targets and causing concern and Freda is not making any interest payments on the loan. At least the gardening is keeping me fit! I remained quite the local personality and was making a difference for the Little Paxton Village Hall and on the Parish and District Councils. Elsewhere. John Major’s City honeymoon with the ERM came to an abrupt end and the FT100 index had already fallen back. Former Prime Minister, Ted Heath, seemed to have secured the release of the elderly and infirm British hostages from Iraq. In a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in its restored capital, Berlin, the unification of Germany was celebrated after sovereignty was returned by the War Powers; USA, USSR, France and Britain having held their last meeting. The rumours are of advanced plans for a U.S. invasion of Iraq in mid-November.
The month of November was memorable in all senses of the word. Following our party's by-election success at Eastbourne, Thatcher fell at last; not at the hands of the electorate but at those of her own party who feared she would have lost them the next election. They chose a local man and acquaintance of mine, John Major, to replace her which causes political turmoil locally. I had to find a parliamentary candidate to raise the profile in opposition and very nearly stood myself and would have done so but turned it down at the request of Diana. Despite all this, our thoughts were with mostly with Dad as it was a year since our sad loss and the dull, dark November days bring back these memories. Freda completed her first six months trading of Redgrave, but we have yet to see any figures. Debbie's schoolwork was going well, coming first in History, and she was enjoying her riding too. Daniel was coping well with his Computer Science degree work at UEA and brought home his new girlfriend Angela, who is studying Chemistry. We heard about the interview and tests that Della has to take to get into Kimbolton for the 7's entry next February. I managed to get over to Heronshaw twice this month and succeeded in breaking the back of the outstanding work by jacking up the garage and under-pinning the structure with brickwork. All this as I was in the middle of a personally active political month working on the Little Paxton Parish Council, the Village Hall Committee and the Huntingdonshire District Council leading our party group into marathon Council sessions to hold the Tory majority to account
That brought us to December which is still fresh in our minds as I summarise the year with Dad's memorial being installed at last on the top of that bleak hill by Paxton Woods. Hectic local politic activity and FOCUS production and then our illnesses that effectively dominated the latter half of the month. At last, the weather turned cold and unpleasant with fog and frost we could not cope with it after all of the recent mildness and heatwaves. My wider family seemed well, and Mum had started staying with the Butterfields in Redgrave where they were enjoying the shop and hosting visitors but did not seem to be disposing of excess stock after Christmas nor undertaking stock checks. My time on local affairs was dominated by the production and delivery of our December FOCUS and finding our local parliamentary candidate for interview now that local MP John Major had been appointed as Prime Minister. I was witnessing the continued decline of ONSITE Training, working on the renovation and underpinning of the Heronshaw thatched garage and learning of the horrific £250,000 estimate to rebuild Heronshaw. Nationally, there was great news later about the Channel Tunnel breakthrough, the government under Major was continuing the Tories’ privatisations of state assets, as unemployment was rising and the pound Sterling at the bottom of its ERM range. Elsewhere, there was the more threatening problem of a potential Gulf War with preparations very visible so that it was just a matter of time. Former West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, swept to victory in the first all-German election since 1932 and Lech Walensa, the former Solidarity leader, won the Polish presidential election. Gorbachev's domestic problems continue as Soviet Foreign Minister, Edvard Shevardnadze, resigns.