Diana woke me up at 7.00am after an early night on a cold, but not freezing, day which was dull and dingy. Poor Michael Pope was ill again but Percy Meyer came round and together we planned most of the general stories for our next FOCUS with local ones to follow for each ward.
Then with Di and the girls to the saddlers for some items for Sundance and home after a lunch out to a deserted Daniel and then three lady friends of Diana with eight children made the place quite busy! Norman Fowler quietly resigned his cabinet post today and got a Knighthood for his discretion, but Kenneth Clarke is criticised by The Association of Chief Ambulance Officers for undervaluing Ambulancemen as being ‘just drivers’.
We went to bed quite early yesterday and so I was not surprised when Diana woke me up at 7.00am this morning. I was still slow to get to breakfast at 8.00am and the light was barely enough to have the curtains open and the electric light off as we looked out on the day from the breakfast table. I was expecting Michael Pope at 9.00am and others to come but his mother telephoned to say that he was ill with the migraine again. She is trying to get him "homeopathic" treatment which evidently helped an acquaintance of hers and I think that they should try anything as the condition is very debilitating. Percy Meyer came round and together we planned most of the general stories for our next FOCUS; namely our re-cycling campaign, the ambulancemen's dispute, the lack of investment in British Rail, the message from the Churches on poverty and the County Council's decision to cut funds from the implementation of the national Curriculum.
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This will then be supplemented with local stories for each of the FOCUS areas. I left at 11.00am, just missing Sally Guinee, and took Diana and the girls to the saddlers to get some accessories and Debbie's new bit. Then, I took them on for lunch at a new family restaurant in Wyboston, called "A. J’s", which proved to be quite good (if pricy). Home here afterwards to find that Daniel had been upset that we had not left him the money out for his driving lesson, or any lunch and he had some cause to be upset. For the rest of the day, I worked on my portion of the FOCUS stories as Diana had her friends and their children round this afternoon which was some mayhem; three ladies and eight children to add to ours! I worked on this evening, as the family watched the television and then saw the late news which had the stories below. The weather was cold today, but not freezing and dry. The news was of Norman Fowler, the Employment Secretary (and formerly Health Secretary) resigning his cabinet post today "for personal reasons", but we will never know. He gets a Knighthood for his discretion. Meanwhile, Kenneth Clarke, the present Health Secretary, is under increasing pressure for his "just professional drivers" speech. The Association of Chief Ambulance Officers has joined the debate for the first time to say that the government is "undervaluing ambulance personnel". Shares leap to record levels today as the latest manifestation of financial folly in my opinion.