David A Broad
A personal story
More than 40 years, told day by day
A tired start to the day of John Smith's funeral, as parliamentary back-benchers of both sides made another attempt to revive the Disabled Persons Bill, the filibustering of which had so crazed him.
I continued training Sam for the weekend’s events and also made holiday preparations and updated paperwork
It was a milder day with rain threatening later as most people's thoughts were in the Scottish parish church of the late John Smith where his funeral was taking place this morning.
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Stepping back from the local election, an office day and making bookings for my trip to Scotland with Diana next week. The newspaper stories are now out and in my judgement the mud has failed to stick.
Arranged with Louise Busby to let her borrow my 4/86 for some FOCUS artwork production but, as I was out with Diana and Debbie at the cinema this evening, an impressed Daniel had to attend to her!
The film we saw was "Three Weddings and a Funeral" which was both funny and sad as a portrayal of relationships
Having masterminded the start of the local by-election, it was time for me to stand back a little from the direct canvassing. But first, my priority was to take Sam for a good walk and see how his eye had fared overnight. It had healed nicely and I do not think that it will lead to a scar. Some retrieves and some running but nothing too much.
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Still managing the Hemingford & Hilton election, harvesting postal votes, where our very conservative Richmond Formula had us behind by over 20 percentage points but we were still in contention. T
hen being visibly relaxed at the HDC Annual meeting where the atmosphere was more like a funeral than a christening and a scene of nervousness and shock that the ruling group lost their figurehead in the elections.
Later coping as Sam is attacked by the large black dog from River Close as the young girl handler had him off the lead and could not control him.
The third and final day of our "trial" campaign of intensive electioneering and testing of the ward such that we could meet and decide what to set as our objectives for polling day.
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Fantastic luck for us LibDems in the forthcoming Hemingford & Hilton election campaign as their chosen candidate Mrs Lindy Horner could not be more unpopular. The former wife of the bankrupt estate agent that owned "Lines", she is remarried to Mr Horner; previously convicted on separate occasions of "clocking" second hand motor cars and being in possession of a load of stolen shoes!
I joined Diana for the Cambridge trip and we had a good chat to her parents. The sales formalities for their Spanish villa are complete and Charles is still interested in our old Escort
The Tories reacted badly to us taking the initiative in getting out in the by-election and, as well as organising more canvassing morning and afternoon today, I also had to counter their press stories of us campaigning during a "moratorium" following the death of John Smith.
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A cold and dull day for campaigning as canvassing for the Hemingford & Hilton election campaign goes well.
I took Sam for two walks and the whole day was quite exhausting as a result.
Diana cleared out Daniel's bedroom as he had failed to and Della helped her to clean Granddad's car for her Brownies badge
Following our delivery of the election address on Saturday afternoon, we had more of a day off yesterday but the St Ives activists were meeting co-operatively last night composing their "Thank You" Focus copy.
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A quieter organising day gently chasing the Hemingford Abbots & Hilton LibDem activists who seem to be organising themselves surprisingly well.
Then walking Sam through the gravel pits and over at Little Paxton Woods in the afternoon in the sunshine on another warm but breezy day as the Tories were caught out with petty and critical text about John Smith in their Euro-Election campaigning guides.
Then watching the Monaco Grand Prix this afternoon and, despite a few incidents, there were no further injuries which was a blessing.
The revised plans for delivering the Hemingford Abbots & Hilton leaflets yesterday meant that I had this morning free but I telephoned Mark Rainer a couple of times and then his partner Peggy to ensure that things were all right.
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