As Diana planned her ‘big shop’, Debbie caused concern by dropping her flute and damaged it slightly and I had to get this repaired in Cambridge whilst also getting my Range Rover lights fixed and meeting with the LibDems constituency Chairman at the party headquarters in Cambridge to try to resolve the parliamentary candidacy problem with Sue Sutton, which I managed to do; getting her to stand with me helping.
Home to go out again to a HDC Southern Area Consultative meeting at the Priory Centre where we got our way as the Tories had failed to turn up in sufficient numbers. Diana took Debbie to her horse-riding and where they had arranged some show-jumping and, from a field of over 20, she managed to win 5th place and also a clear round rosette.
Up a little slowly again after my late night but still able to get to the table in a state of undress like yesterday. The last crumbs of a packet of Oat Wheat Flakes, some milk (which almost made it moist) and then more apple juice to complete my breakfast. After the winds lately, the leaves were gathered into the corners and the flower-beds and therefore the lawns were quite clear. The weather was still again, with the cloud cover keeping the frost at bay. The girls to school and me to work as Diana went to St Neots to do a "big shop" at Waitrose. The news from Debbie this morning was that she had dropped her flute and damaged it slightly so that the "G" key was sticking. The repairer is in Cambridge and I tried to call him to see if he could do something quickly for us.
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I also called the constituency Chairman and toyed with the idea of going over to the party headquarters in Cambridge with him to try to resolve the parliamentary candidacy problem with Sue Sutton who was due there this morning. By this time, I had accumulated a number of jobs that needed my attention whilst I was out. A visit to Sue Sutton, the repair of Debbie's flute in Cambridge, the purchase of grain for the doves, the upgrading of my computer and the repair of my Range Rover lights. By the time I had got all of the necessary things into the car, time was getting on and so I had to head for "Wendy", the home of Sue Sutton, where I rendezvoused with the Chairman of the S.W. Cambs constituency, Murray White. First, I dropped in at the Croxton Little Chef and had a snack and some coffee and tea to fill in the intervening half an hour and write up some notes on how a successful election campaign could be orchestrated.
We arrived at Sue's house at mid-day, as arranged, and discussed the possibility of her candidature for the Parliamentary seat of South-West Cambridgeshire. Murray beat about the bush for a while and then I lost patience with this approach, emphasised the urgency of responding to John Major's appointment locally and described the type of campaign that I could see us organising; finally asking her in simple terms whether she would now be prepared to stand. She replied yes and we celebrated the event with a glass of wine. Murray had to leave and I stayed on a little while, discussing campaign tactics with her.
As a penitence for not standing for parliament myself and to get Sue to do so, I had to offer to be her campaign manager and would also co-ordinate campaigns with North-East Cambs and Huntingdon as well. I foresaw a team approach. with the constituency chairmen identifying helpers for a membership recruitment drive to be led by Percy Meyer, the candidate/s seeking every opportunity for radio and television publicity, Brian Whit advising us on the data-processing aspects and providing a means for linking in to the Cambridge City section of the constituency and me as the campaign organiser.
After I left, I drove into Cambridge and dropped off the flute for repair and then on to Marshalls by Cambridge Airport where they repaired the lights on the Range Rover. Not only had one of the brake-lights failed but then one of the headlight beams as well and urgent action was needed. I then visited Systems Support and left my MAC with them for attention, collected the repaired flute and drove across Cambridge and back to get a couple of bags of mixed corn for my doves whilst taking and originating telephone calls on the way! That just left me to collect my computer from Systems Support, but this time I had a chance to chat with Jeannie Rezzell about commercial matters. Now that I am Chairman of ON-SITE Training, I wanted to assure them that I was not wanting the two companies to get into competition and would like to have a good co-operative relationship.
Home for a latish tea and then a rush to get out again for this evening's HDC Southern Area Consultative meeting at the Priory Centre which was an ill-tempered affair. The Tories were few in number and distracted by another Town Council meeting taking place elsewhere in the building. We had the majority in attendance and had put in most of the items on the agenda and they were unhappy about this; claiming that we were wasting time. We stuck to our guns and got what we wanted and still the meeting only took an hour and a half. I talked to my colleagues afterwards and briefed them on the parliamentary situation.
New Prime Minister, John Major, named his cabinet today and let Hezeltine have the post of Environmental Secretary to try to sort out the Poll Tax. He made his first mistake, however, in not appointing at least one woman to the cabinet which is the first time in 25 years that there has not been one and this makes us the only country in Europe without. Diplomatic relations have been restored between Britain and Syria and the Labour Party have joined the Liberal Democrats in explicitly backing the idea of a single European currency. This evening also, Diana took Debbie to her horse-riding and where they had arranged some show-jumping. In one competition, and from a field of over 20, she managed to win 5th place and also a clear round rosette.