A family day playing with the children in their school holiday, welcoming my father and making a joint visit to Papworth; pleased that he can stay at No 39 Gordon Road as a huge fire blocks a Pennines tunnel and Victoria Gillick wins her anti-under-age contraceptive campaign. All as oil hits a new low and Thatcher is cornered by her doubting colleagues
Up on time and to my morning tea and paper. Daniel is already getting a bit bored with his school holiday and goes into bed with Deborah this morning, listening to stories from her tape recorder! After breakfast, a lay in finishing my reading and then up to get washed, dressed and showered. I hear the radio coverage of yesterday in parliament and the mauling of Patrick Jenkin, but the real culprit, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sits quietly by. Out to feed the ducks and doves, but the doves are not very hungry. The weather is mild with rain drizzling and it is amazing to see how their appetite varies with the air temperature. I phone The Trader local newspaper and give them my thoughts for a ‘Christmas present wishes for our leaders’ feature. I ask for my Mother to have a positive Papworth test and Christmas operation, for St Neots to keep its livestock market and, perhaps, avoid large schemes that could change its character. For a miners strike settlement and conciliation and the industrial renaissance of this once proud country of ours. Daniel and I read model magazines and decide on a radio controlled buggy. Phone calls find a ‘Progress’ at a Milton Keynes shop and it seems a good choice. I light the log fire in the lounge as Dad is expected today and we settle down to lunch waiting for him to arrive. This he does shortly after doing his chores in Bury St Edmunds.
We all eat mushroom soup, bread rolls and meat which is a good choice. After, Dad helps me put away the ducks and we set off for Papworth to see Mum. We arrived to find her unconscious from her pre-med and, expecting the test this afternoon, we leave her, planning to return after 6.00pm. In the meantime, I fill the Jaguar with 16 ½ gallons of petrol at £1.85p each and drive over to Milton Keynes with Dad to find the model shop. A difficult journey and return. The district of Ferry Stratford is badly signposted and, on the way back, the light, dark, and traffic heavy; but we got the Progress Buggy and a minute tool bit as well. On the journey Dad and I talk politics and I try to explain the errors and ways of this present government, which I see as a most reactionary one. Home in time for tea and then Dad sets off for Papworth, this time to find Mum awake and in good spirits. We hope to speak to the Doctor tomorrow. We are very fortunate to have Papworth so near us and the 39 Gordon Road free and suitable for Dad to stay, both during the tests and any subsequent operation. To seal our luck, we also hear from Di’s sister, Sue, that she has got a job, and a good one, at the University of Essex at last. News tonight of a huge fire caused by a fuel train exploding in a Pennines railway tunnel. The catholic mother, Mrs Victoria Gillick, wins a court of appeal case to prevent doctors prescribing underage girls with contraception without parental consent, and quite right to. The aviation committee force Ridley to postpone the Aviation Bill until the future of Heathrow and Stanstead is decided. With worries rising over the falling price of oil, the pound falls to $1.1655, its lowest ever. So much for Thatcher’s petro-economy.