Saturday February 21, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Margaret Rushton, our absentee barmaid, graced our abode with her presence at luncheon. Her mother is flat out in Killingbeck Hospital weighing in at 4st 7lb. Curtains it seems. Grey-faced Margaret's days are also numbered. We cannot cope with unreliability. Here's a little vignette from Bill Gilmore, a former Scots Guardsman with a large red nose. Someone said to him that perhaps Leeds Utd might win the coming FA Cup. "If Queen Anne had bollocks, she'd be t'King", he quipped. Quite excellent. Ally  and Samuel cleaned the car. I cleaned the beer lines. Ate mounds of liver and onions. Just Ally and I tonight. It was good to see Bernadette McCarron back on form. Ally is delicious. We enjoy the intimate 'staffless' weekends. Poor President Reagan is heading for another Watergate. Poor old sod.

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Friday February 20, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Fuming today. Leslie Gledhill sent us a letter, from which I'll quote later. Winnie, Dad's neighbour at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, phoned and gave me momentary panic, by saying that at 2:30pm today Dad's curtains were closed, his blind in the kitchen was down and his garage door ajar. I tried phoning but had no joy, but eventually traced him to John's, where he was unconcerned. I thought he had 'topped himself'. Poor Sue is abed with gastric 'flu.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was represented by by Lt-Col Sir Martin Gilliat at the memorial service for Dame Ann Parker Bowles held yesterday at the Guards Chapel ...

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, former director-general of the BBC, died last night in the King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers. He was 76.

Princess Anne arrived in Agaba yesterday on a three-day private visit to Jordan as guests of King Hussein and Queen Noor. She was met by her husband Capt Mark Phillips, who arrived in Jordan on Tuesday.

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Thursday February 19, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

The Duke of York is 27 today and celebrating in Klosters with the Waleses. Only a year ago Fergie was seen on the piste with Charles and Diana. What water has passed under the bridge since then?

Pool Knock-Out at home. Ghastly. John the landlord of the Station at Hunslet came. Obviously a worried man and constantly looking over his shoulder. He's terrified about being found out about his various fiddles. He kept mumbling about the five managers who were sacked last week, "all on one day" he kept muttering. He is hoping to move to the Crown at Wetherby. We had no staff.

Sir William Coldstream, the artist and arts administrator, has died aged 78. The Daily Telegraph says he was: "one of the few men to exert a wholly benign influence upon art in Britain.  Seldom have high competence, which amounted in his portraits to something more, and sanity been so finely balanced."

More than five million packs of butter have been distributed in Britain as part of the Common Market's surplus food hand-out and supplies of cheese, milk, and beef are now getting through, Mr Gummer, junior Agriculture Minister said yesterday.

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Wednesday February 18, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

I took Bev to Roundhay winding through the morning traffic. She is such a lovely girl. But a mystery. Uncle Peter says she baffles him. But my uncle is easily baffled. Ally was shattered all day but she never sleeps. Clemmie is such a "wide-awake" thing at 3 or 4 am. I got up in the middle of the night and switched on my video and watched "Blazing Saddles", the Mel Brooks epic.

Strong rumours are ripping through Westminster that Lord Whitelaw, the Deputy Prime Minister, may decide to stand down at the next election. The Leader of the House of Lords, who will be 69 in June, is coming under increasing pressure from his family to quit.

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