Harold McMillan died this year and with him, One Nation Conservatism
Harold McMillan died this year and with him, One Nation Conservatism

A year notable for its extreme weather. The UK started with a big freeze then turned very wet except for April which had the hottest day for 38 years ,75degC. Fatal floods and heatwaves plagued many parts of the world, we had the October ‘hurricane’ which felled countless trees and such natural disasters were matched by man-made ones with the AIDS epidemic, The Herald of Free Enterprise sinking, the Hungerford massacre, bloodshed in Ireland and South Africa with more air crashes and mining disasters. The NHS was left in a continuing financial crisis through underfunding, there was The Cleveland Child Care scandal. Thatcher’s popularity sags during a year of high unemployment, major industrial unrest and huge stock exchange losses linked with ‘fat cat’ City financial scandals. These accompanied by repression of Civil Liberties and gagging of the BBC and then by the introduction of the Poll Tax, the ‘last straw’. They lost a by-election to Rosie Barns of the Alliance which party then approved me as a local election candidate for next Spring. At home, there was a new Daimler for me, Little Lady for Daniel and more plans laid for a conservatory and koi carp pond. We had to outings to Brighton, then on the boat and came back to plant and landscape the new games lawn. Debbie joins Daniel at Kimbolton and the children all do well at school and we go to Disneyland in Anaheim. After the November Fireworks and Fayre, the year closed with December church services. The East West arms limitation agreement was the year’s political highlight, Reagan rising in the end over Irangate; but the Irish conflict, the Iran/Iraq Gulf attacks and Tamil persecution were lowlights. The world is the poorer for the loss of Cello player Jaqueline du Pres and elder statesman Harold McMillan, Bob Geldorf tries to highlight African starvation whilst South Africa and Israel defy world condemnation

The year of 1987 started in a big freeze, with bitterly cold weather in January a dry, cold and icy month which froze the Medway and cut-off villages throughout Southern England and led to widespread traffic chaos. Daniel braved his school narrowboat trip and Debbie her horse-riding but the Range Rover came into its own for our London Boat Show visit and other trips. We had been relatively healthy but our extended family suffered more. I was interviewing older Little Paxton residents and making progress with my researches and writing the book and not responding to soundings from John Lamb about returning to business. Harold McMillan died in February, one of the many famous personalities whose lives end during this freezing cold and fairly wet month which also saw some family ill-health but some family celebrations as well. Daniel gets ‘Little Lady’ for his 15th birthday;  I got a new Daimler and hatched plans for a new conservatory and koi carp pond, and tried to bring my Little Paxton History project to a conclusion We turned to outside pursuits in March as Spring took its time to come.

There were some family successes with Daniel and Debbie at school and some illnesses to overcome but we had to wait for April for a fine month of weather, after the flooding when we had the hottest April day for 38 years as it reached 75degF. Another very eventful month: For Diana and I, a weekend in Brighton; for the family, a trip on The Lady cruising our favourite venues on The Great Ouse and for us all, various developments on the personal and health front. I had spent a long time preparing and renovating The Lady, was well underway planning my Koi Carp pool and conservatory and had the contractor already starting work on the quay-heading of my river frontage with our swimming pool back in action again. May was a good family month for health and welfare which featured good use of our new swimming pool, major improvements to the moorings and pleasurable outings which included the first boat trip on The Lady after its recent renovations but June was an appallingly wet month that did not stop me completing the river works at The Hayling View moorings and our family enjoying our new swimming pool and restored summer house, hosting events here and having lost of outings. The children do well as my mother recovers but Di suffers a lot. July was a rather cold and wet month and not the best for starting our boating holiday in The Norfolk Broads with The Lady and Little Lady but the holiday goes well and our family health is good and Debbie and Della are progressing through their education whilst Daniel is enjoying his new boat. August continued that trend as a generally wet month in which we still enjoyed the end of our Norfolk Boating holiday after a very full tour of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads but we had not managed in two attempts to get The Lady under Potter Heigham bridge but we visited the beach from several nearby venues and enjoyed the amusements and the sandy sea shores. We were sad to have to come back to find Hayling View with alarm problems and to have to deal with a mountain of chores but we soon reverted to our normal activities and routine but both us and our family are well. As if that was not enough, September was one of the wettest months on record followed our arrival back and need to tackle a range of outside and riverside projects, uppermost of which was landscaping the new games lawn. Daniel finds a new girlfriend, Debbie makes a successful start at Kimbolton School and still keeps her local friends and pursuits going. We plan a new Anaheim Disneyland break for half term, I accept candidature in local elections. The month of October was known for its hurricane winds that caused havoc over southern England, wind-felling millions of trees after a very wet month at home with constant flooding after my extensive landscape gardening during which confinement I made good progress in my History of Little Paxton project, which attracted publicity and heralded my candidature for the local council. Di and the girls struggled but overcame slight ailments, Daniel finds a girlfriend and the children do well at schoolwork with me on their tail! Well prepared for the start of our Californian holiday.  I was not alone in adopting a gloomy view of the economic prospects as November arrived as there is wordwide Stock Exchange turmoil as the wintry weather arrives, here but I am working hard on my history project, catching up on phone messages, national and local news and progressing my projects after our Disneyland holiday. The family are mostly well and we managed outings for the Fireworks , November fair, and St James Church services amongst others as I completed my investment summaries, statements and children’s trust account schedules. During the unusually mild and wet month of December, we laid new games lawns, recovered The Lady and Little Lady ashore for winter maintenance and I also conducted an in-depth investment appraisal, researching river meadows and forestry as possible acquisitions but keeping most of my money safe in cash and government securities. My extended family have not in too bad good health, we have enjoyed a good Christmas with family visiting and lots of church services after visiting many attractions during the month.  My history research has been on hold but my candidature for Local Government has approved and much local paper publicity encouraged. On the home front, the icy January saw motorway pile-ups, protests at Wapping Plan and Scottish prisons, strikes of BT Engineers’ and London Tube workers, and then a huge scandal over the Guinness affair with Earnest Saunders losing his job and corrupt City practises exposed.  Sizewell B was approved but a nuclear arms convoy crashed and disclosures followed by journalist investigative Duncan Campbell into a civil liberties clampdown and to plans for the intrusive Zircon spy satellite but the first BSB/Sky satellite was commissioned for UK domestic services. Terry Waite eventually joined the ranks of the hostages he was trying to release in Beirut, Harold McMillan died after a noble and influential political career. Prince Edward left the forces to pursue a civilian career. Thatcher rules a de-industrialising society even more divided by wealth and now oppressed by opposition to unions and secrecy rules attacking free speech in the so-called protection of security and use of Police causing rioting in the Midlands which would not have pleased the late. Rosie Barns of the SDP/Liberal Alliance party wins the Greenwich shock by-election and the Alliance’s future was on the up. Thatcher became Britain’s longest serving post-war Prime Minister. Dr Pauline Cutting was evacuated from the Beirut refugee camps and had to cease their stoic work. The Duchess of Windsor’s jewels were auctioned in Geneva and raised £31 million.  The Aids infection spreads, The government AIDS campaign sees new condom advertisements and widespread awareness by way of publicity. The Church of England decides to allow women into the priesthood. By March, Thatcher’s Tory government is losing popularity and by-elections despite her visits to Russia where she at first opposes arms limitation but then becomes more optimistic but she makes some controversial political/industrial calls favouring the US and many of our arms weapon scientists are killed in suspicious circumstances. Thatcher consolidates her party’s position in May with local election success and then immediately calls a General Election for June and the rest of the month is dominated by this.  The sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise due to negligence was the most tragic event but Townsend Thorensen is under increasingly bitter attack at the Zeebrugge enquiry over its sacrifice of safety to profit motives. Workers protest over unemployment as certain of the rich are arrested for fraud and tax evasion. Thatcher visited the USSR in April and said she could do business with Gorbachev. Then Thatcher wins her general election in June with a large majority and starts implementing her plans on a deeply divided nation which includes the Poll Tax. There few measures to tackle the NHS waiting list crisis, the Cleveland Child Care scandal breaks. MP Keith Best is jailed for multiple BT applications in the privatisation share offer. Thatcher is planning repressive laws with her anti-union policies in July and The Poll Tax the latest of them whilst she continues to support South Africa, whose leader are besieged with anti-apartheid action. Richard Branson failed ignominiously in his cross-channel balloon attempt and had to be rescued from the sea. John Fleming, pursued by Scotland Yard for 3 years for the Brinks Matt bullion robbery, is freed for lack of evidence. This all comes to a head in the summer as the  UK economy is suffering with a stock exchange crash, high unemployment from manufacturing decline and other economic woes, after the so called ‘Big Bang’ libertarian reforms. Thatcher is still resisting measures to deal with the carnage in South Africa despite the miners’ strike and ongoing worker deaths and a proper enquiry into the Spy catcher revelations, The Coastguards, and those fearful of inner city deprivation are on the warpath, there are Notting Hill riots and firearms reforms are mooted after the Hungerford Massacre. A month later, the Moors murderer, Ian Brady, confesses to killing more sex victims at last. Michael Ryan runs amok in Hungerford with his armoury of guns in August and Herald of Free Enterprise disasters are revealed and UK industrial unrest is rife. Douglas Hurd gives permission for 26 Liverpool fans to be extradited for Heysel October sees a collapse on the world’s financial stage and revelations of corruption, threaten Thatcher’s free market approach. In November, we have the Kings Cross Underground fire as 31 people die, and the ‘Poppy day massacre’ in Inneskillen as an IRA bomb kills 11 and injures 63 at the Enniskillen Remembrance Day service are the two lead stories and Mr Wilson is remembered by many for his dignity over the loss of his daughter but the latter is just part of the Irish troubles. Nissan, the Japanese car manufacturer, plan a £216 million factory investment in Teesside, backed by undisclosed sums of government money. Bad news as Thatcher ends free eye and dental tests, plans a Poll Tax for 1990, privatises schools and cancels UK involvement in Euro space efforts upsetting just about everyone. In December, Thatcher has been accused of underfunding the NHS and running down public services, and now lays her Poll Tax Bill before parliament amongst great controversy, and then tries gagging BBC over Spycatcher and the Birmingham Pub bombing miscarriages of justice. 1987 saw much conflict in Ireland, which started at the beginning of the year when 8 IRA men were killed in an SAS shootout in Loughgall Police Station, continued through when IRA bombs shook Belfast and Ulster Loyalists were protesting over the Anglo-Irish pact designed to end violence in Northern Ireland and culminated in Her Majesty The Queen’s appeal for conciliation during her Christmas message. Elsewhere in the world, the risk of a trade war with Japan also significant, in March Reagan had to go on TV to admit his role in the Irangate Affair, and  is pilloried over the illegal Nicaraguan Contras arms controversy,  the US Frigate ‘Stark’ was hit by missiles in the Gulf in May, killing 37 seamen and this sparked an enquiry into the effectiveness of their forces and Gary Hart, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency had to retire after a sex scandal but he returned to the race regardless later in the year, as he saw that no strong alternative Democratic candidates were emerging. The South African regime are ever-more repressive Protests, strikes and violence occur after South Africa still persists with All-White elections and the South African unrest continues the Sri Lankan Tamil rebels are being attacked mercilessly. Russian Yuri Romanenko has broken the space endurance record and the Russians have tested a space rocket, capable of launching space craft similar to the US space which may have helped the US/USSR nuclear arms talks progress in May was the most significant event for the world, Later in the year, Reagan struggles with Supreme Court nominees, is still censored over Irangate for illegal and unconstitutional behaviour. He is largely ineffective, weighed down with the Irangate scandal as Gorbachev gets frustrated with him  as the US and USSR struggle to complete their nuclear arms negotiations but then make  progress as the  deadlock might be solved by the German Pershing missile concession and the arms deal with Russia seems to be on with  the US/USSR are on the eve of a historic agreement. Elsewhere, there were colliery fires, dozens of people perished needlessly in an aircraft crash as  150 die in the Flight 255 Detroit air crash with just one passenger surviving, and mass Spanish food poisoning deaths, floods and a hotel fire, there were knife and bomb attacks throughout the world and protests grew for freedom in China and South Africa. a pro-Marcos revolt in the Philippines is crushed by Cory Aquino but possibly the most worrying development was the Iranian advance on Basra in Iraq. In June, we send 4 British minesweepers to the Gulf and are thus involved for the first time and our diplomatic tussle with Iran escalates as Middle East disputes deepen such that by July, The Middle and Far East is alight with disputes and ethnic wars. A US helicopter attacks an Iranian boat and captures it and its load of mines but Reagan finds his warships and oil tankers trapped in the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf is a powder keg with tankers being damaged and oil flowing from damaged shore installations and Mecca is in uproar. Israel break international law unimpeded and the Gulf tanker attacks continue unabated throughout the rest of the year. Floods and heat deaths affect southern Europe this summer and I remain glad that we can avoid all these problems and I do not have to run a business for a living and am thus relieved to continue our pleasant and sustained leisure lifestyle. The persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Fiji leaves the Commonwealth as a newly-declared republic and the Great Cello player, Jacqueline du Pre, died of multiple sclerosis. The Van Gogh ‘Sunflowers’ painting became the most valuable sale ever at £24M. Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, ‘commits suicide’ in Spandau, bringing to a historic end that prison’s role. In September, German pilot Mathias Rust flies into Moscow’s Red Square and is sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for his pains. Col Rabuka manages a coup in Fiji, which deposes the Queen as Head of State. Ian Woosnam wins the $1M South African Sun City golf tournament. By December, World exchange markets, oil and currency drops, and the Gulf conflict and unrest in the occupied Palestinian territories threatens peace but Reagan and Gorbachev have now signed the 50% reduction treaty for Intermediate Nuclear Weapons. Bob Geldorf comes home to report an African famine threatening the lives of five million people.  All these are the memories of 1987. We enjoyed our Norfolk boating holiday and our trip to Disneyland as our highlights, but the world is suffering far worse than us.