Progress on my house renovations and family duck husbandry as The Byte Shop gets its first three-year plan and Comart wins government contracts. General retailers abort micro-retailing and more British manufacturers go bust whilst Thatcher hammers the unions and unemployment tops 3.3m

Up on time and, after my normal breakfast, to the office to see June and advise her on the day’s secretarial interviews. News that UKITO have agreed my place and date for discussions. A morning’s paperwork and discussions with John Lamb and Peter King as I start to draft the organisation’s first 3 year Business Plan. After lunch to the Dentist for the first of three fillings. St Neots is in full swing for market day but I manage to park quite easily and walk through the St Neots Arcade which Les Hamilton claims is facing extinction. After the Dentist, to the bookshop to buy a fine book on the sites of London with splendid photography and a book on model making for Daniel to use in future years. Home early to play with an exuberant Debbie and help Daniel put away the hungry ducks.

They certainly missed their feeds yesterday evening and this morning. Today the workmen began the task of preparing the garden boundary for the chimney and wall foundations. They removed the shrubs, took delivery of bricks and cement and dug down to start the foundations. They tell Di that they can work for three weeks without disturbing us which is very good. In the computer industry Digico have followed Almarc into receivership and now Lasky have followed Tesco’s and Curry’s withdrawal from the specialist computer store business. I hear that Comart have won CCTA sales only third at £1/2 million to ICL’s £1M and Equinox’s £2M for the running contract so far. This out of twelve contenders! News today that unemployment has risen again to nearly 3,200,000 people, which is an increase of over 150,000. In an OECD report, the authors see no change for the next 18 months. The government are ‘puzzled’ but not so the opposition parties. Duty free ports are today announced for Cardiff, Southampton, Birmingham, Prestwich, Belfast, and Durham; but I doubt that it is to lead to any improvements in trade and think it is just a gimmick. Better news is that burglaries are down for the first time in a while with ‘neighbourhood watch’ volunteers assisting. Mrs Thatcher is today in an Eastern European country for the first time, but in Beirut the peace has been again broken by heavy artillery fire and the population are at the end of their tether. The print workers at the Times have agreed to go back to work in time to prepare the Saturday’s Times and Sunday’s Times as usual. At GCHQ the staff are still fighting the Union ban and in the House of Commons it was confirmed that senior GCHQ staff who refuse to accept the situation will be dismissed without redundancy or additional compensation. The weather mild for now with odd showers from time to time.