As the chilly weather continued, I was working inside and catching up when Nigel arrived to talk about the Kimbolton School Speech Day row and to express himself disappointed that I would not stand as the constituency M.P.
Some calls to help Mum with her pond fish, to exchange my computer/navigator interface by post for the right one and then to work in the evening. The Ethiopian civil war is a cause of international concern with the population face starvation, the latest British government scandal is the 31% increase in the profits of British Gas following its privatisation to become a huge monopoly and the government refuse to drop the testing of seven-year-old school children in favour of continuous assessment.
I was back in my own bed for the night and slept well enough on it. Slow to rise and then to get showered and dressed but was still down in time to have breakfast with the others. We have had a recent problem with Debbie, who has been deserting her friend, Helen Cranston, in favour of new friends and I had to insist that she made arrangements to see Helen on Sunday if she was going to have another to stay with her after her party. Once Debbie was off to school, I stayed in to look after Della and her friend Naomi whilst Diana did some food shopping.
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I had a surprise visitor in Nigel Smith who just dropped in to see me after breakfast and stayed until coffee. We talked about Kimbolton School and the Speech Day row when some 120 parents were told at short notice that they could not attend and hear the guest speaker: no less than the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Bernard Wetherill. Then about politics when he pronounced himself disappointed that I would not stand as the constituency M.P. Nigel gone, I pursued a host of telephone messages. Mum had called earlier about the fish in her pond dying through lack of oxygen and I called her back and tried to advise her on how to deal with the problem. I also arranged to exchange my computer/navigator interface by post for the right one and also to take in my faulty Navstar Plotter to their Daventry factory to get it fixed. After lunch, I made this journey and managed to bring it to a successful conclusion and was pleased to bring back the unit in working condition again.
Home in time for tea and then to work this evening; updating this last few day’s journal, some of which I copied across from the portable computer. The Liberal Democrat party broadcast was on the television today and it was very good, putting the environment at the heart of our political policy. The news today was of the breakdown of the Northern Ireland talks as the Protestants rejected the choice of independent chairman. The messy aftermath of the Ethiopian civil war is a cause of international concern as the successful rebels quell the population of Addis Ababa by the gun and bullet and the population face starvation due to the effects of this long-drawn-out conflict.
Gorbachev has gained the support of the French and Germans in getting an invitation to the G7 talks of the world's greatest economic nations, but the United States is resisting to the last. The latest British government scandal is the 31% increase in the profits of British Gas following its privatisation to become a huge monopoly. In another defiant stand for the sake of political dogma, the government refuse to drop the testing of seven-year-old school children in favour of continuous assessment and face continued confrontation with the school-teaching profession. This cold and chilly weather seems set to continue.