Servicing the many and varied needs of the aftermath of the election campaign after taking Di for our customary visit to see her parents in Cambridge for coffee. Then more Meetings and Mayor-making, coordinating the Tory and LibDem efforts to organise the Town Council and then taking over the Chair of the first meeting of the new Village Hall Committee
Today, I continued the struggle to try and catch up my work whilst servicing the many and varied needs of the aftermath of the election campaign. Some little time trying to update my journal before breakfast and then away to Cambridge with Diana for our regular Tuesday morning visit. We parked in the Round Church car park as usual and walked to Eadon Lilley's coffee shop to have morning drinks with Di's parents. They were surprised to see us for a second week running as I bought them both coffee and a scone to share.
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Di's mother is preparing to go to the London Greek christening for Crystal, Charles and Chrisula’s youngest, but she will be the only English person there amongst all of the Greeks because the rest of this side of the family have opted not to go. I left Diana to go and shop for some new underwear with her mother (who I hoped would encourage her to go for something more adventurous) whilst I took a taxi across to Sheridan House, Glisson Road, for a meeting with Alan Charlesworth.
Alan was one of the founders of Glisson Printers, the Liberal Democrat voluntary organisation that handles all of the party FOCUS and election printing to keep costs down. Following the break-up of his first marriage, he dropped out of organising Glisson and it was left to John Matthewman to take it over and it deteriorated to the point of recent crisis. Now his language-tutoring business is drying up and he is willing to come and work full-time to put Glisson back on its feet if it can afford to pay him a salary and I am keen that he should do so. I expressed my view, which was briefly that the present partnership would need to be replaced by a limited company structure, with the parties holding shares that formerly "owned" it. There would need to be a board of Directors with a Chairman, Managing Director and a new three-year business plan researched and written to show the regular party work and income supplemented by commercial revenue made possible by utilising the premises and machinery all day for all of the working week. Against this would need to be forecast the planned expenditure and salaries. Then there would need to be a management plan for the expansion and better use of space, improved material flow and working practices, storage etc and also the implementation of proper planning methods and management control.
I left him with lots to think about and to plan ahead of his meeting next Monday with the Glisson partners, but also offered my support and encouragement for the venture. This meeting left me a little late to get across to The Copper Kettle where I was meeting Di for lunch and so Alan gave me a lift there. A nice meal of Roast Beef and all the trimmings followed by strawberries which I took with cream and Diana with ice cream. The drive home and then, this afternoon, I sat and typed up the final list of St Neots Town Council representations. I had received a telephone message from Alan Sharp with the Tory changes and so was in a position to produce a complete list. Later I went round and checked the details with both sides before coming back to run off 45 copies which are being circulated to both Liberal Democrat and Conservative members this evening, and then the Labour member tomorrow prior to the meeting.
Whilst I was at Sally's, her telephone was ringing non-stop with calls from local journalists who wanted to know what was happening about the Mayor-making. All this done, I came back and then rushed out to the first meeting of the new Village Hall Committee since the organisations A.G.M. In the absence of the chairman (who had called me earlier to say he could not come) it fell to me as Vice-Chairman to run the meeting and it was quite a difficult one. The room was full of all of the new committee members who needed introducing to one-another and organising into the sub-committees of maintenance and fund-raising. There was a new set of officers - Treasurer and Secretary - to get settled in and then a major dispute to take as the first item.
I think I then realised why the Chairman had decided to give this one a miss! The dispute was all about the introduction of new fee levels in a way that seemed to lack the appropriate level of consultation and endorsement so that the Play Group, the Friendship Club and ten the Gardening Club were all moved to object. I got them all sorted out and agreed in the end with everybody happy again but found the process quite trying for a while. Home quite late and to return a few telephone calls. There is another row in the village at the moment about the construction of a huge 9ft barrier or "bund" to shield the village from the noise of heavy lorries on the gravel pit road. The householders are even more upset about this barrier than about the original noise as it blocks off their views of the sailing lake.
With the latest parliamentary by-election just two days away, the Labour Party are leading the opinion polls against the sitting Conservatives and so the ruling party seems set to lose another seat which should put the General Election back even further. Our thoughts are still on St Neots with the conclusion being that Mayor-making is quite a business.