diary geezer The last time a Conservative Prime Minister replaced a Labour Prime Minister, I had Coco Pops for breakfast. The date was Thursday 3rd May 1979, and I was fourteen years old. My classroom was being used as a polling station so they shut the entire secondary school and gave all us pupils the day off (it would never happen today). Mum had her hair done, and I spent the morning watching schools programmes on TV because there was nothing else on. I went to the local library, because nobody had yet curtailed its opening hours, and bought a cream slice from the baker's shop to eat for lunch. In the afternoon I had to go into school because our music teacher insisted on not cancelling his beloved orchestra practice. He was extremely pleased I'd passed my Grade 5 violin exam the day before, and I hated him in return for ruining my day off. That evening the family had a big roast dinner and then we watched Blankety Blank - the final show of Wogan's first series. And I went to bed very soon after the polls closed, because kids didn't stay up Facebooking and X-boxing in those days.
I was up early the following morning to discover the news that Britain had elected its first woman Prime Minister. I watched the election results alphabetically on Pages From Ceefax, and was terribly impressed by the cutting-edge blocky teletext graphics. And then it was off to school, for a day that kicked off with double English, French and History. Our English teacher gave us an election-related homework, to write a newspaper article relating the top story of the day, which I think I still have in an exercise book in a box in my spare room. Other than that, I don't think we schoolboys gave the General Election much more than a cursory mention, which was a poor show given that we'd all have the vote in the next one. And then it was off home for a plate of leftover beef and to watch Mrs Thatcher doing that speech about St Francis of Assisi on the TV news.
There wasn't much space in my diary in those days, so I didn't usually waste words on adjectives or emotions. But I did permit myself a two-syllable opinion on the election result, making my teenage thoughts on Tory ascension crystal clear. Got that right, as it turned out.
I wrote something very similar in my diary last night. But I didn't have Coco Pops for breakfast.
diary geezer
