Monday October 6th

Foul weather all day long – torrential rain, gale force winds and cold atmosphere – the only highlight being our debate.

After a pretty mundane day in school, the twenty-odd debaters assembled in the common room, where we were to give our speeches. We sat behind a desk facing the rows of critical minds - quite nerve racking I suppose. I felt shivery at the thought of giving a speech – would I break up like I had done at Art College that Tuesday? I surprised myself really. Apart from the odd nervous twitch here and there, I managed to deliver it quite well. As usual, Quinn turned his speech into a politically-oriented one – religion preserves the place of the bourgeoisie in society, etc. . . . – and when the votes were cast, they read like this” “This house believes that God/religion is a figment of man’s imagination”; Votes for – 7; votes against – 6; abstentions – 10. So we narrowly won. (C. P. voted for the motion – I was wrong).

It was absolutely diabolical outside – I got soaked, especially since I was only wearing pumps. I passed my evening by watching tele’, reflecting on the debate and generally having an ego trip.

Today, Hattie Jacques died aged 56, the Iraqis captured Khorramshahr and Chancellor Schmidt was reelected in West Germany.