The family visit to California with Daniel’s girlfriend Angela accompanying us
The family visit to California with Daniel’s girlfriend Angela accompanying us

This month started with the family visit to California with Daniel’s girlfriend Angela accompanying us and ended with the trauma of the election campaign peak. Once back home, we restored our swimming pool and pond and I returned to my Council and Election duties, securing £7.500 towards the cost of extending the village hall and leaving the local LibDems in good shape for success early next month.

Oil well fires raged in Iraq where Saddam Hussein and his men had gained the upper hand after the Kurds had been deserted by their US allies. The Poll Tax died a formal death with the re-introduction of a property tax based on capital values with a discount of 25% for one-person occupation.                                                                                                                   

This early part of the month was spent in the southern part of this American State visiting Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knotts Berry Farm and this finished with the excruciating journey back across the Atlantic in the crowded jumbo jet. We found California much as we had left it, but lacking some of the freshness, all of the ‘flower people’ and many of the facilities that had made it pleasant to visit. At least the cable cars have retained their unique quality that has survived their renovation after the earthquake as “them big wheels kept on turning". It was just a pity that there were less characters operating them and that the cable car turns accommodate even more of the destitute poor who have been failed by the social security system.

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Once back home, we got back to normal as best we could, finding the weather appreciably chillier. A propriety was cleaning out and commissioning the Hayling View swimming pool and so I spent some time showing new gardener Bill how to vacuum the pond. The Peacock visited The Hayling View again and Peter Larkin starting work on our new moorings. Despite everything, I still found time to go roller skating with my daughters.  The election campaign was to dominate my time for the rest of the month and this was generally successful, even though I ran straight into trouble with the Eaton Socon candidates. Even so, I got on top of the organisation and all else which I just about cleared up by the eve of poll. All this tended to dominate the month and other matters took a poor second place. There was no time for contact with my wider family or friends and particularly with my boat and bungalow in Norfolk the fate of which was still to be established. It was much more straightforward chairing a joint Village Hall/Parish Council committee which was making great progress our new village hall extension for which I secured £7,500 towards the cost and several other things agreed.

Oil well fires raged in Iraq where Saddam Hussein and his men had gained the upper hand against the Kurds in the Northern part of the country after the Kurds had been deserted by their US allies. Belated UK humanitarian aid was flown in as the continuing refugee problem was highlighted by more television pictures of the suffering Kurds who had been denied sanctuary in neighbouring Turkey and Iran. It was only after the Kurds were losing hundreds of children each night on their mountain sites that Turkey started relenting and bringing refugees down for aid. The "UK idea" for "Safe havens" for Kurds in Iraq was being taken up by the US and French who finally offered the displaced Kurds Allied military "protection". Teddy Kennedy hosts a drinking party in Palm Beach after which his nephew, William Kennedy-Smith, was accused of rape of a young woman.

Back home, a slight fall in inflation and lower money rates allowed the authorities to allow the bank rate to fall by a further half percent and so some mortgage interest payments will now fall by up to 1%. The "Son of Poll Tax" measures divided the cabinet ministers over its balance of personal and property elements. Eventually, the Poll Tax died a formal death with the re-introduction of a property tax based on capital values with a discount of 25% for one-person occupation.

Spurs beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final and Welshman Phil Woosnam, won the US masters tournament as the fourth British player to do so in as many years. The Holyfield vs Foreman world heavy weight fight was featured on TV