Cannot find apt Update logs and Desktop widget does not record any updates

[Peejay]

For a while I've noticed that the Desktop Widget on a Core2Duo laptop of mine (now running 64bit 3.8 ) has been showing 'never updated' for the update status even though I've performed several updates, including the upgrade to 3.8 (but the problem precedes that).
I saw that the updates script for the widget looks for update dates in the history.log in /var/log/apt/ so had a look at that.
I found that no log existed for updates after 24 November 2017 and that the last entry for that date showed an Update Start Date but not an Update End Date.
As I read the script this could well cause the 'never updated' message to appear.

So I then did another update to see what happened. It went through the usual prompts without any problem but once it started the package downloads it just disappeared from view altogether - no window, no status icon - but apt processes were clearly active in the Task Manager. When update was completed the LLUpdates.log appeared and seemed to be all in order apart from some problem with the Flash Updater which it had seemed to resolve.

However, history.log remained unchanged.

I'd be grateful for any pointers on how to fix this, which looks to be more of an apt issue rather than anything to do with the widget.

Thank you