I was taking full advantage of my election as a District Councillor this month
I was taking full advantage of my election as a District Councillor this month

This was a warm and muggy month, with the odd thunderstorm, that was dominated for me by my Council work as I both spoke out at meetings and worked behind the scenes to make progress on a number of my campaigning issues, having only a little time for my little Paxton history with talks also being given to the St Neots Rotaracts and the Little Paxton Ladies. I tried to take opportunities to be with the family and to meet up with friends whilst also attending the lawns and cars at the Hayling View. A busy time with our swimming pool being a popular venue for the Little Paxton brownies and others. UK interest rates rose to 9% with a record trade deficit of £1.2 billion which had sterling falling sharply. Thatcher is still carrying all before her as the opposition parties start leadership elections, though suffering criticism from religious leaders. More IRA bombs and the downing of a British army helicopter. A restricted nuclear arms agreement at the Reagan Gorbachev Moscow summit then Gorbachev returns home for a new style Soviet party conference and to hear of a huge Russian train explosion which killed scores and injures and makes homeless hundreds more. Both France and Germany have their train and mine accidents and The UK Iran stand-off continues, the Turkish Prime Minister escapes an assassination attempt and hundreds die there in a landslide near the Black Sea.

And that ends the month of June – a dry month on the whole, that ended wetter, but we had many close and muggy days and the occasional rainy day and a huge torrential thunderstorm. My Council work got into full swing and I was becoming quite effective – both at getting things done and attracting beneficial publicity – but this came at a cost as this dominated my time and left less for my family and other pursuits. I did progress the Little Paxton History book a little, particularly about the Mills chapter, but there is still much to do.  I have not yet started work on The Lady, with our planned boating holiday only a week away, and my financial investment reporting is in the same state of neglect and neither have I had time to visit Thormaid now that the accounts and managements plan have arrived. Concerning the history, I was working on my Little Paxton chapter about the development of Riversfield and on windmills and watermills,  calling in to see Ken Gambier and Mr Brannigan, his managing director, at Samuel Jones Paper Mill, to return their archives and talk to them about local affairs. I gave Little Paxton talks to a very-interested St Neots Rotaract club, the WI and the Little Paxton Ladies Club who reported the best turnout ever with more than 40 ladies present and, by collecting many subscriptions, the event seemed to help restoring their fortunes!

I found time to watch England lose the test match against the West Indies on TV. With regard to domestic matters, I killed my first mole and bought more traps hoping to catch more, as I did not want my carefully-attended games lawn spoilt and I worked with Pete on the gardens, taking him to Shaw’s auction in St Neots to buy bedding plants. I was struggling to maintain the new games lawn in the absence of Di’s help, and attending my birds and ducks, retrieving a duck from one owner’s dog’s mouth on once occasion. Joan, our cleaner, was badly affected after attending the death of her father but was able to be there as he passed, sitting at his bedside. My parents are in Cornwall with Freda and Alf and I can only hope that they are OK. I found time to take Debbie horse-riding to Offord every week, including one occasion where we experienced a huge torrential thunderstorm which flooded the stable yard and local roads and which I only navigated due to taking my Range Rover and I did enjoy this vehicle and the Rolls Royce on better days, cleaning and polishing them both, though I had to take the latter to Bedford for a technical investigation. Poor Debbie suffered from bad hay fever this month but was very good to bear it. We also had to direct Daniel to the nurse for a cut finger which did not help. The children’s exams ended, which is a blessed relief, after I had to keep Daniel revising for his intermediate maths exams, but I am not sure about the level of achievement and I await the results with some trepidation. Della is gradually emerging from being so clingy to Diana, as Di’s involvement in Brownies grows and she as to spend time in helping look after so many other people’s children and we had to suffer Della’s over-night restlessness. Our swimming pool has been a boon in the warm and muggy weather. I took time to cool off and the children loved the wall mounted netball ring which I installed on the garage wall next to the pool. Debbie could meet and interact with her old school friends who came to swim and I had to help Diana receive two dozen brownies who had come to use it! Diana’s diet is not working and she had a visit to the doctor. For her family, we spent mornings in Cambridge having coffee with Diana’s parents, and planned a Jackson family lunch at the Hayling View. We also had a pleasant afternoon at Little Paxton School fete and a fine sunny and dry day for a trip to St Ives for a switch panel for Daniel’s boat but pouring rain made for an abortive family visit to St Neots Riverside Park on another occasion.  An evening Barn Dance with neighbours and friends made for a change and I tried sailing on the river one sunny and warm morning, but I had to leave Diana to attend the Kimbolton Prep Department sports day without me. I found time for a pleasant trip to visit the John and Brenda Tomlin family in St Albans and a visit to Nigel and Lynne where there was a chance to play with my god-children Ashley and Late, and had a chat with Nigel about their factory/warehouse extension there. Di and I also had an evening dinner with Nigel and Lynne Smith after which I came home worrying if Nigel was all right after his skiing accident, but he seemed fine on another occasion when I collected him from Hail Weston to look at some property investment opportunities. My new HDC  Council activities and responsibilities were both wide-ranging and time-consuming: Meetings included the inevitable ‘new members’ seminar given by the Chief Executive and Officers; a planning seminar; the Economic Development Committee meeting, where I had got some ideas on to the agenda and opposed excluding the public to the council office car park without success; the Environmental Services Committee meeting where I made a big contribution much to the annoyance of chairman Councillor Mrs Beddows but to good effect; the Leisure and Amenity committee meeting about the designation of Paxton Pits as a nature reserve where they welcomed my interest and made me their representative on the St Neots Museum Society committee and the Southern Area Members Consultative Committee meeting where I promoted the ideas of a St Neots Cinema and Sports Centre. Apart from formal meetings, and Committees where I was a participating member, I secured agendas and papers for all other committees. I had a meeting with the estates officer for a briefing prior to the Housing Committee; spent some time reviewing the HDC computer installation plans and agreed a course of action with the computer manager; and watched the Finance and General Purposes committee where the sole Labour councillor, Jim Lomax, tried hard but lacked the knowledge and skills to hold the Tories to account. I set up a meeting with the director of planning and chairman of the Leisure and Amenities committee to discuss the future of Little Paxton Pits and Nature Reserve, where I persuaded them that, as well as conservation, this should be promoted as a Country Park with areas designated for watersports interest groups and a refreshment kiosk near the picnic area. It was not just HDC meetings that took my time: I had been made a member of Little Paxton Parish Council, was meeting residents in Southoe and Diddington, an evening meeting of Priory Doom where I called for unity and then SLD party meetings including one which Paddy Ashdown was addressing. I was also part of a delegation to local police chiefs to argue the case for a village bobby and was now attending the St Neots Museum committee as the official Council representative! Apart from all this, my general campaigns were about road signs, pot holes, grass-cutting and dog-fouling and I was writing and distributing press releases and FOCUS campaigning leaflets with Mike Pope my County Council colleague, assisted by Bill Walston and John Mathhewman at the SLD’s Glisson Printers in Cambridge.  The SLD is still sorting itself out slowly nationally but local morale is already high, due to my efforts. Not much has changed in the world, unfortunately, with Thatcher still carrying all before her despite bank interest rates up again to 8 ½ % and then 9% and a scandal with Barlow-Clowes PLC whilst the UK stock exchange reaches post-October highs but then news of a record trade deficit on the UK balance of payments of £1.2 billion had the pound sterling sharply falling and the EC rules that VAT applies to commercial property The Labour Party and SLD are now both having their leadership elections, Paddy Ashdown and Alan Beith have declared themselves candidates for the new SLD Party leadership. Thatcher is her normal bullish self at the economic summit eve and promotes loyal ally Cecil Parkinson to chair the Star chamber cabinet committee as fighting inflation at the expense of manufacturing is Nigel Lawson’s top priority and York’s Rowntree is given in and accepted an offer from Swiss Nestlé. Methodist leader the Rev Richard Jones attacks British Tory capitalism and social injustice. Unfortunately, the TUC and EETPU are falling out over non-strike agreements and the TUC decide finally to suspend the EETPU when they shou;d be fighting the government. On the sporting front, Thatcher is criticising soccer hooligans and England’s football youth supporters are in Europe rampaging around Düsseldorf on the eve of their match versus Holland and behaving disgracefully as football results and fan behaviour dominates the news. England avoid a West Indian test cricket defeat, but Wales lose the rugby on their New Zealand tour and Gatting is fired from the England captaincy due to an indiscretion, following a tabloid witch-hunt. Lester Piggott loses his OBE after conviction for tax evasion. More of the troubles this month as a big bomb explosion that killed 6 soldiers in Lisburn, Belfast, after they had taken part in a charity fun run, then a British army helicopter was downed in Northern Ireland after its tail section was shot away and there was a callous IRA bomb attack in Ulster seriously injures a 15 year old girl which left Thatcher upset at the lack of an Irish extradition for a terrorist suspect. In the prisons, there was a riot after inmates had to take down pictures of pinups  and the new Risley remand centre was dubbed a disgrace. Its high proportion of mentally ill inmates and high suicide rates has been castigated as it currently holds 823 inmates in space for 92 and now there is further restrictions as hippies try to gather in vain to celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge but are moved on but the government loses its court case and the BBC can now report on government secrecy. Shocking news of leukaemia risks close to my forest near Dounreay nuclear power station and near-misses are reported between passenger jets over Biggin  Hill,  cocaine is washed up near Brighton, a third motorcyclist has been killed on the Isle of Man whilst practising for this year’s TT championships and Russell Harty dies of a liver failure. The King’s Cross fire enquiry reveals deficiencies in London Transport safety, Police detectives make progress in investigating the murder of Mrs Marie Wilks and an eight-year-old girl in two separate incidents. The Thatcher/Reagan mutual admiration is the main international story as Reagan flies home via London after the arms and he plans his retirement At the Reagan/Gorbachev Moscow Summit they had signed the previously agreed INF agreement but there was no such agreement on long range weapons yet. Gorbachev plans to visit the UK soon but at Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet party conference, debate was allowed the first time in 30 years and the new style Moscow conference had novel contributions with even calls for Gorbachev’s removal! A huge train explosion in Russia kills scores, injures hundreds and leaves 600 people homeless.   The UK/Iran talks are adjourned as the UK refuses to negotiate with Iran on hostage release and a British –flagged Esso ship has been attacked by Iranian gunboats in the Gulf. The Arab Summit funds the PLO for its uprising The French stock-market scandal mounts and the French socialists win most deputies in their election but all eyes were on the tragic French A320 airbus crash by pilot error which killed four but miraculously the rest of the 127 passengers were saved; but no such good fortune as two trains crashed head on in Paris with many dead. In Germany. all fifty shift workers from a coal mine explosion were thought to have died but six of the German miners were rescued from an air pocket. There was an assassination attempt on the Turkish Prime Minister and, in southern Spain, terrorists tried to plant a bomb at the naval base but both plots were foiled but then natural disaster struck and  hundreds of people are feared dead in a Turkish landslide near the Black Sea. South Africa’s Supreme Court refuses to open the case of the Sharpeville Six despite evidence of prosecution witness torture.