To Cambridge on a very close and warm day, buying a tennis net and posts and having a family coffee before meeting Sue Sutton and Murray White at Glisson Road until lunch at The Copper Kettle and home to chair another joint meeting of the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee to agree the design for an extension to the village hall.
In India, Rajiv Ghandi, leader of the Congress party was assassinated just like his mother, Indhira, had been.
I was awake quite early after another late night and I had a rather sore and stiff shoulder which I must have got whilst laying in an awkward position. Busied myself before breakfast tending the swimming pool and fish pond, clearing out the filter basket of the latter so as to restore a reasonable flow after it had become clogged. I was ready to go to Cambridge with Diana by 9.00am and so we could leave quite early in in order to do so. I sat in the passenger seat and worked as Diana drove and this allowed me to get through some more of my paper-work backlog and reading material. Once in Cambridge, I combined social and political activities by first taking coffee with Diana and her parents before then doing some shopping with her to find a lawn tennis net and posts to install on our games lawn for erection soon. Finally, I met Sue Sutton and Murray White at Glisson Road to discuss our campaigning and organisational policy for the next year or so.
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It was a tricky and difficult meeting but very necessary as we had diverging views that we were finally able to reconcile. In essence, I was equally keen on the value of local government as well as national elections and believe in the steady build up of constituency organisation rather than working for the short term and others felt that all effort should go into the forthcoming general election. Lunch with Diana at the Copper Kettle and then some more shopping in Cambridge City centre. The weather was very close and warm today and this process became very tiring. Home in mid-afternoon after which I changed into shorts and sandals and then did some work at my desk again until tea-time. Several telephone calls trying to organise my colleagues to select the right committee for our Liberal Democrat branch at the AGM on June 12th.
Tonight, I chaired another joint meeting of the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee and we met for an hour and a half and agreed the design for an extension to the village hall. We are now recommending the project be pursued in more detail with an application for planning permission to be made. The news today was of the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi who, as leader of the Congress party, was expected to return to government in India in the election being held at the moment. Like his mother, Indhira Ghandi, he has been killed by political rivals in this continued strife between Hindus and Moslems. The election might be called off and the Congress Party now have to appoint a successor.