I arranged to collect Diana after her Bedford and St Neots shopping trip and went to help Carole in her campaign, canvassing in Wistow, after dropping by Jack Taylor's place in Warboys to get some materials. We then and then did a motor car tour of both Bury and Wistow as we discussed tactics and the election campaign.
A bit of a rush to get finished there, get home for a quick lunch with Diana, and then with Percy we went over the rest of the households in Yelling and the Gravely Road to drum up some more support. Home for tea and then out again soon afterwards for the Little Paxton Annual Parish Meeting at the Village Hall as Ray Mathews presented an interesting talk on the wildlife and history of Paxton Pits.
News tonight is of the Court of Appeal quashing the convictions of three Irish people, jailed in 1988 for conspiring to murder Tom King but they were immediately re-arrested under the prevention of terrorism act.
I was up quite early this morning and to breakfast with the others to discuss what Diana was doing today. She was going to Bedford and I wanted to do some canvassing. I telephoned Sally, Carole and Percy and found out that Sally was not canvassing today, but that Carole was this morning and Percy this afternoon. I therefore decided to go up to help Carole in the Range Rover. This meant dropping poor Diana off in St Neots to catch the bus and arranging to pick her up at lunchtime. I used the car phone to get things prepared on the way and I dropped by Jack Taylor's place in Warboys to get some materials.
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The car-phone is very useful in this regard as I could actually get Jack to direct me as I drove! Once there, I took Carole over to Wistow and we did some canvassing. The response was very good with the canvass returning support that was worthy of the effort. We worked on for a couple of hours, taking in the playgroup in Wistow Village Hall as it turned out, and then did a motor car tour of both Bury and Wistow as we discussed tactics and the election campaign. It is quite spread-out with the polling station at the outskirts of Bury at the top of the hill. There was still quite a lot they could do, and I decided that they could do with a better poster display and a larger committee room closer to the Polling Station. It was a rush to get back for lunch, but at least I received a call on the car phone from Di who was in St Neots and I arranged with her that she would do her weekly shopping in Waitrose and I would pick her up afterwards.
A bit of a rush to get finished there, home for a quick lunch, and then over to Percy's to do some work in the afternoon. It was by now a very warm and sunny day and Percy and I went over the rest of the households in Yelling to drum up some more support. We also worked on the Gravely Road. Home for tea and then out again soon afterwards for the Little Paxton Annual Parish Meeting at the Village Hall. It was only a modest turn-out which was a pity as Ray Mathews presented an interesting talk on the wildlife and history of Paxton Pits (during which he acknowledged my history writings on the latter). The actual Council Meeting with the public went on a bit, but at least there was a discussion on many points of interest to the village and several misunderstandings were sorted out with the Scouts. It ended quite late and I stayed later still to chat to the Chairman and Ray before coming home.
News tonight is of the Court of Appeal quashing the convictions of three Irish people, jailed in 1988 for conspiring to murder Tom King. It seems that Tom Kings remarks about "terrorists abusing the right of silence" prejudiced the case. They were immediately re-arrested under the prevention of terrorism act and detained while exclusion orders were prepared. This has come as a surprise on both sides of the Irish Sea.