John Grosvenor was elected in Little Paxton
John Grosvenor was elected in Little Paxton

A successful Little Paxton polling day which started with heavy rain and ended with John Grosvenor being elected. During the day I had been completing the garden chores in the absence of Pete and this evening came news that the rail strikes were going to be intensified. Irish Prime Minister, Charles Houghey, is forced to resign and the new coalition must be formed

Today started with heavy rain but ended up sunny and warm. I was slow for breakfast after being disturbed by the sound of water splashing down on my balcony from an overflowing and blocked drain pipe. I then had breakfast in my pyjamas and, after dressing, I sat in the conservatory for ages reading the morning mail. It included post for the District Council and, within it, details in draft of the District-wide Local Plan. I had to do all of the conservatory and livestock jobs today as Pete did not stay with the heavy rain making mowing impossible. In late morning, I took Diana and we voted in the village hall for John Grosvenor. I worked on the local plan and also my press cuttings this afternoon and then, after tea, Michael visited and we studied the plan together to compare notes on what our response should be. Later, I sold half of the allocation given to me of Village Hall fate programs before driving up to the Village Hall to watch the count for the parish council by-election it was very close with my candidate, John Grosvenor, beating Joan Ratcliffe by 87 votes to 79, a margin of only eight votes!

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I was quite sad for Joan, who wanted to win, but it will bring new blood onto the Parish Council which will be good for it. The Women’s Institute and Friendship club and voted en bloc for Joan Ratcliffe at Joan Knight’s bidding, but the Pulp people combined with the recipients of my leaflet to outvote them. To bed a little late again tonight. The news is all about the rail strikes with Jimmy Knapp, the NUR leader, being given the authority by unanimous conference decision to call more one-day strikes including more than one a week if the government and British Rail do not respond to their demands. At the TGWU conference, Neil Kinnock was invited to speak and condemned the union’s decision to support unilateral nuclear disarmament. He declares his intention is to press on with electorally more popular policies. The Irish prime minister, Charles Houghey, is forced to resign from the premiership and hold a caretaker position and to the new coalition can be put together.