Milton Keynes Super Heroes

Milton Keynes The City Of Legend will be published in January. I am now working through the final draft. Given the current situation I would like to share this chapter. READ ON.

WARNING: You may like to wear a pair of sunglasses as the turn of our Milton Keynes Kaleidoscope in this chapter is going to be very bright !

I have never in my life belonged to a trade union. I have never in my life been on strike. In my lengthening life I have never supported the withdrawal of labour, that is until now in the last couple of months of 2022. I am writing these words on Wednesday 30^th November 2022 and editing them on Friday 16^th December 2022.

I am an old age pensioner living on a small fixed income but I would more than happily see my income reduced by fifteen percent to help fund the nurses’ pay claim.

We are living through a financial crisis with people not being able to afford to heat their homes, not able to put food on their tables. Lives are at risk. Nurses are planning strike action, their first such since the days of Florence Nightingale. Wind the clock back two years to the evil of the pandemic. We all stood on our doorsteps and clapped for our NHS. Posters of love for the National Health Service were everywhere, supermarkets gave discounts to front-line workers. Today all are gone, all are forgotten. The shallow happy-clappy support has fallen off the sleeves of those pretending to love our NHS.

During the pandemic the fear was that the NHS would be overwhelmed. It was not. The front-line nursing staff went the extra mile to make sure that never happened. The front-line nursing staff RAN the extra ONE HUNDRED miles to make sure that never happened and to protect its patients.

My family owes a debt it can never hope to repay to our National Health Service. For almost four decades I have been a loud supporter of our NHS and if I live to be one hundred years of age my volume will always be turned up to eleven.

Although I would so happily donate fifteen percent of my pension, no make that twenty percent, it isn’t going to happen is it and my little bit of cash isn’t going to make any difference ! How many copies will this book sell ? One ? A hundred, one thousand, perhaps in my dreams one million even. If sales were to reach every home in the country and every person was to read this chapter it could never celebrate enough our front line NHS superheroes to the height they deserve.

Now editing this draft text, I spent time in the Day Care Surgery Unit at University Hospital Milton Keynes following the accident I spoke of earlier, I am having to use only my left index finger to tap my laptop’ keyboard. I watched nurses on twelve hour shifts working so incredibly hard. The media has recently been full of football and would have us believe these players are superheroes. How much does a premier league footballer earn ? The average is £60,000 EVERY WEEK. How much does a TV sports journalist earn ? Gary Lineker earns around £2,000,000 A YEAR. Way near the bottom of English Football, MK Dons recently sacked its manager, I wonder how much more he earned than does a nurse !

I have tried to do my bit to show love to our nurses, Milton Keynes Superheroes. I have signed one thousand Smile Christmas Cards for these beautiful people. Why are we celebrating our over-paid failing World Cup footballers ? Why are we not celebrating our NHS Nurses who 24/7 hold out their life-saving cup of love ?

When my broken arm is mended I plan to grab the Health Secretary and plant his backside in that hospital unit then force him to observe and take note of I was privileged to see. How much does he earn ? £84,144 !

BBC licence fee payers, that’s you and me, how much is its political editor Laura Kuenssberg get paid compared to an NHS nurse ?  In 2020 she was paid £290,000 ! Her pay rise that year was above the salary of a nurse !

My printer is running low on ink. I have ordered some replacement cartridges which should be delivered today but the Royal Mail is on strike. It is very inconvenient but there will be no deliveries for the next two days.  Inconvenient but going against my lifetime belief that industrial action is wrong I fully support Postman Pat and his friends going on strike.

Within the bits and pieces of community projects I run I spend quite a bit every week buying stamps. Royal Mail postage stamps and the incredible service behind them are a bargain. Increase their cover price by whatever the pay claim our postal workers are striking for and everything would still be a bargain.

Postman Pat who serves my home is a Milton Keyes Superhero as is Postman Pat and Postlady Patricia serving every home in every street across our City. Come rain, come shine they are always walking the streets and smiling at our letterboxes. Rain and shine these days come in excess from torrential to heatwaves, both keeping we ordinary folk indoors. Postal workers are not ordinary folk who hide indoors, they are superheroes who deserve better.

In another kaleidoscopic chapter I speak about trying to learn how to send electronic mail and how a professor at our Open University could not get myself and other delegates attending the day course to make it work. How many e-mails do you send in a day, in a week ? Every single one of them is helping to put Postman Pat and Postlady Patricia out of a job. If such achieves its technological end where will our society be ? Postal workers, incredibly hardworking postal workers are a living legend, please do not allow the life to be taken out of that legend.

Write a letter to Buckingham Palace and you WILL receive a reply. That reply will be in the form of a letter and not an email. It is the ROYAL MAIL after all. Write a letter to the Health Secretary as I did six weeks ago and as with my experience you will not receive the courtesy of a reply.

In the various twists and turns of our kaleidoscope I speak of our Milton Keynes Bin Men, I am not going to apologise for repeating myself here. If you are looking for a superhero in Milton Keynes look no further than our hard-working bin men who like our postal workers are out in all weathers.

Our bin men are not on strike. How much are our bin men paid ? I don’t know and I am not going to try to find out in monetary terms, in real terms the answer is not enough.

Bin Bag Thursday, I was looking out for our super stars to give them a Christmas gift. It was early, it was still dark, people were scraping ice from their cars, there were our Bin Men going about their day in sub-zero temperatures. Just as they had been serving our community during the crazy heatwave of last August.

When David Taylor was Mayor of Milton Keynes he spent a day working with our Bin Men, how many mayors since have followed his example ? How many mayors have supported our Nurses an Posties working alongside them ?

Where would the City of Milton Keynes be without our nurses ?  Where would the City of Milton Keynes be without our postal workers ?  Where would the City of Milton Keynes be without our bin men ?

Wouldn’t it be nice if all cities had superheroes like Milton Keynes.

 THEY DO !