20090606

Tuesday March 26, 1974

A horrid day. The so-called Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced his first budget this afternoon and everyone is quite livid about it. Electricity is going up by 30 per cent and my train fares will cost me an extra £5.20 per annum. But, he didn't clobber the pensioners, which is a worthy thing I suppose.

At lunchtime I trapped my finger in one of the filing cabinets and my finger nail went black within seconds. This incident rendered me useless for the remainder of the day.

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Monday March 25, 1974

The Minority Labour Government presents its first Budget tomorrow. No doubt it will be an absolute stinker. Healey may be a Yorkshireman but he won't be doing anything for his fellow county-dwellers. I'm dreading the possible tax increase. Mother thinks he's a delightful little man - all fat and jolly, etc. How can any sane woman fall for the charms of this latter day Stalin? poor Mummy, one fears for her sense of reason...

Sunday March 24, 1974

4th in Lent. Not today, thank you!

Saturday March 23, 1974

Up at 7.15. Not at all tired, though I would not have objected to staying in bed. Work at 9. Leave with Sarah at 12 and think to myself that I could quite grow attached to Sarah if she would only climb down from her very high horse.

Lynn and Sue went on a shopping spree to gather in the Mother's Day offerings and came home with a record, Bryan Ferry's LP. Quite fantastic.

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Friday March 22, 1974

Quite a busy day but uneventful. To the Emmotts at 8. Chris, Andy, John, Keith, Paul, Laura with Martin (one of her latest conquests). At about 9 we all go to the Hare and Hounds at Menston and then Andy takes John, Chris and I in his VW to Wikis, where John becomes a fully paid up member. A good time is had by all and we go home at 2 or thereabouts.

Receive a letter from David in Worcester. I tell him, when I reply, that something will be going on at Pine Tops on April 5, my 19th birthday. And by odd coincidence I saw Sandra Lawson in Wikis, with someone other than her husband, and we exchange the usual niceities. John was unusually abrupt this evening and behaved quite hatefully towards the end. We had a good go at each other when we arrived home. Bed 3 -ish.

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Thursday March 21, 1974

Papers are all full of Princess Anne and Capt Phillips. I think that the whole response is overdone. We all know, or at least should do, that the Royal Family are in constant danger from extremists, maniacs, etc. The BBC say that security will have to be revised but anyone who knows anything about the Royal Family knows that the Queen will never concede to armoured vehicles or masses of armed bodyguards - I am quite sure of this. A man, if that is what you can call the monster, appeared in court this morning charged with the attempted murder of Inspector Beaton, the princesses detective. Crowds of people flocked to Bow Street to catch a glimpse of the fiend. Poor, shaken Anne and Mark are now at Oak Grove near Sandhurst. It is reported that the Queen and the duke were "horrified", but Sir Martin Charteris says her Majesty took the news with great calm, "like a queen."

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Wednesday March 20, 1974

As assassination attempt was made on the life of Princess Anne and Capt Phillips this evening. We are all horrified. The incident occurred in the Mall at about 8 o'clock, and four people are in hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. The princesses detective and chauffeur and two by-standers are the wounded. The lives of the royal couple have been remarkably saved. The weapon used destroyed all the windows in the Rolls and the poor princess is now at Buckingham Palace. I'll wager any amount of money that this foul deed is the work of the bloody IRA.

Later: Further developments show that the atrocity was in fact a kidnap attempt, and a letter stating this was received by Her Majesty, but I do suppose that the poor Queen receives thousands of these absurd notes every day.

My half-day. At 12.30 I went to the Commercial with Mum and Dad, where we have pie and peas and several pints of beer, which is quite overpowering at lunchtime. The weather is beautiful and Dad and I spend an hour in the garden. Harry Monkman is furious when Dad cuts the lawn. "Do you realise that you are the first person on the lane to cut your lawns this year?"

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Friday April 20, 1984

 Good Friday Moorhouse Inn, Leeds In days of old I complained , nay played hell, about the archaic licensing laws on this Holy day. Not now....