1964

"Following his departure, the bugs were briefly removed. But according to the secret files they were reinstated months later on the orders of new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. Douglas-Home’s reasoning is also unknown. The MI5 files do not disclose why he too wanted his Cabinet and officials put under surveillance, nor why he wanted his own study bugged."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266837/Revealed-How-MI5-bugged-10-Downing-Street-Cabinet-Prime-Ministers-15-YEARS.html

Hello! I have to say I've pretty much neglected my blog last year, although that said I had delved into the real life events surrounding 1964 on and off during 2011 - sadly with nothing new to report or indeed anything that shed's further light onto the Penkridge Mystery.

So, while not surprisingly this blog highlights the events of 1964. The year itself seems to appear very much tinged with paranoia, as this article shows from the Daily Mail earlier last year.  

When Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister back in October 1963.The Government of the day appeared to be very much pre-occupied with its own insecurity, while Macmillan had resigned from office through ill health. The Profumo affair had also taken its toll causing great consternation within political and intelligence circles.

Added to this Anthony Blunt's confession in 1964 to being part of the Cambridge Spy Ring must have only served to beleaguer the Government's confidence in its abiity to maintain National Secuity. Amalgamation of the three Armed Services in April 1964 saw the formation of the new Ministry of Defence along with the Defence Counsel, whose members I had spent time researching in an effort to glean some insight into any unusual activity that might have come to their attention during the period.

Further a field - Alec Douglas Home had visited the United States back in February 1964 for a two week period in which the US had halted military aid to UK, France and Yugoslavia in retaliation for their continued trade with Cuba.
While the issue of Cyprus was also on the agenda. I wonder what else may have been discussed during Alec Douglas Home's meeting with President Lyndon B Johnson during the state visit.

March 1964 saw a US RB-66 jet downed by Soviet fighters over East Germany. I thought this was interesting because of the reference to Stringfield's source who implied that part of the Unidentified Object had impacted (albeit in this case) somewhere in West Germany. Although it did make think about what else might have fallen out of the skies over Europe at the time.

There are still lots of areas that remain unexplored but ultimately some of these will no doubt lead to either dead ends or are red herrings side tracking me from my original research - although I still feel they will be worthy of my attention even if only to discount other theories as to the origin of this story.

Lets hope 2012 will be a more constructive year!

Stephen