General Election aftermath with Thatcher rewarding her followers with high office, now being unfettered, but the Royal Family enjoy the Trouping of the Colour on HM The Queen's Official Birthday
We rise late following the late-night election vigil on Friday morning and Daniel and I clean out the ducks. The ducklings have ventured out for the first time and eat & drink freely. Two hours watching the televised Trouping of the Colour ceremony as today is the Queen’s Official Birthday; then lunch at The Little Chef on the way to Cambridge where the city is busy with degree ceremonies and car parks full.
A pleasant but dull day’s walk and browse in the shops to buy a pen and pencil set and odds and ends. Clive today becomes Sir Clive Sinclair in the Birthday Honours List, along with many civil servants and monetary economists loyal to Margaret Thatcher. Prudential World cup on the television with England easily beating Sri Lanka. Tea of prawns and brown bread and then to put away the ducks. Chance to talk to Old Bill next door who is lonely these days, his wife gone and family no longer interested in the riverside plot. The middle plot is for sale for £5500 which I think is £2000 too much. The late evening playing “Rocket Raid” on Daniel’s BBC Micro. Much comment today on the election results. A Tory landslide on seats won, but their vote down 2%, Labour with 10% less votes and the SDP/Liberal Alliance up 12% but with few seats under the present electoral system to show for it. Finally The Prime Minister disposes of Frances Pym as Foreign Secretary and Howe as Transport Minister. Whitelaw elevated from Home Office out of the way to the peerage. Promotions for Sir Geoffrey Howe to the Foreign Office, Nigel Lawson to the Exchequer and Cecil Parkinson to a new combined Trade and Industry Minister. Leon Brittain to the Home Office. All together, the yes men go forward – a poor week.