Thursday 5th November 1981
Princess of Wales pregnant!
E on local authority rates - Heseltine wants referendum if formula is exceeded - says he expects 40 or less
Cecil [Cecil Parkinson] very worried since he sees Good Tory councils caught.
Drys [sic: Dries] pro MH [Michael Heseltine]. Wets (WW [William Whitelaw] hates referendum) Pym (defeatist won t go through House). M. Jopling said difficult but thought it would go through, then changed his mind under Pym s coaxing and said it would not - but PM supported MH.
Lunch with PM and Private Secretaries: Still against EMS [European Monetary System]. Very pragmatic on N. Ireland - would cheerfully give it to Fitzgerald if only he would take it. She would save £1 - 1½ Bn or so. Repatriate Irish!
-meeting reported in FT and Guardian now cancelled.
Papers all said PM s speech was best she had delivered.
- FT headlined my expected growth and inexorable timing. DW [David Wolfson] is frightened of implications in 6 months time if things do not look rosy.
JH [John Hoskyns] very nervous about commitment to turn it around in one year s time - did Gummer add that sentence - I did not.