What value liives ?

6th June 2020:

Yesterday 357 beautiful lives came to an end in Britain. Three hundred and fifty seven families and friends who are grieving their losses.

It is absolutely impossible to comprehend the level of the grief these beautiful lives have left behind. I can not comprehend the grief even though today is a day of grieving for me. Boris Cummings-Johnson and his failing band of Yes Men, can you comprehend the grief ?  We have now passed forty thousand deaths in Britain from corona virus. 

But let's get things into perspective !  Boris Cummings-Johnson is now taking personal charge in the fight against the pandemic.What is he achieving ?

You can now go to McDonald's and drive through to buy the mass produced crap they sell.  From next week you will have to wear a face mask when using public transport but this week it is perfectly safe not to wear one. The airline industry is tightening its grip on a certain part of Boris Cummings-Johnson's anatomy so his Yes Men are looking for ways around the fourteen day isolation  period for those entering the country.

So as restrictions are relaxed remember the virus has not magically disappeared. Your immune system has not changed. There is no cure. There is no vaccine. The only thing that has changed is powerful lobbies, business and economic pressures have out-lobbied public health science and concerns for collective death.

How many beautiful lives do you expect to be lost today Boris Cumming-Johnson ?  Will you need to seek permission  from the likes of McDonald's before you can comment and change the way you are failing to lead our nation  ?

Today is the anniversary of my daughter's funeral. This day is always harder for me than the anniversary of her death.  Yesterday's page was a bit different as I tried to rally support for a project operating in her memory.  Nine people read it, just nine and of those nine not a single person responded.

Forty thousand people are dead because of corona virus in Britain. Can you comprehend the level of grief ?  Can you Mr Boris Cummings-Johnson ?  Even in my own grief I can not !

Milton Dreams - The City That Never Was - Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - A CITY OF TREES

Plant a tree in seventy-three. Plant some more in seventy-four. 

Who remembers that ?  Not an initiative from Milton Keynes Development Corporation but a national campaign to make England a more green and pleasant land.

I have a tree in my garden which does not date from 1973, nor does it date from 1974. As a tiny sapling I nicked it from Woburn Woods then planted it in my garden to commemorate the birth of our first son, Peter in 1980. It is known in the family as The Peter Tree.

At the bottom of our garden is his summer house. It stands at the edge of a field boundary dating from the Enclosure Acts of the Agrarian Revolution. Within the deeds to  the property it states that the field boundary hedge behind the summer house must not be removed. There was a time when any significant rainfall would cause this area of the garden to flood. It was the draining point for the field. No longer, The Peter Tree balances the water across the property.

There are twenty-two million trees in Milton Keynes, how lovely is that ? Milton Keynes was in its earliest days of construction was at the same Plant A Tree In Seventy-Three was announced. Every house in the new city could have a free tree to plant in their garden.

From its inception Milton Keynes was to be The City of Trees. Set in tablets of stone was The Milton Keynes Development Corporation's intention that NO BUILDING SHALL BE TALLER THAN THE SURROUNDING TREES.

Oh that, Milton Keynes Council trashed it years ago !

The Hub is just one abomination to abuse the skyline of what never did become our city centre. One wonders if a three-legged frog suffering from dementia designed the skyline of Central Milton Keynes. It would take a forest of Giant California Redwoods to obscure the carbuncle known as The Hub. 

Of greater concern than the three legged demented frog who was the architect of this monstrosity, who are the three-legged demented frogs who gave planning permission for it ?

Did you know there is a tree cathedral in Milton Keynes ? It's adjacent to Gulliver's Land at Willen. When I went there Gulliver's Land was packed but there was not a single person at The Tree Cathedral !  Is it any wonder ?

And that is trashing another foundation stone of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, there will be no parking charges in the new city.  Complaining about the rip off parking charges of Milton Keynes Council, simply boycott The Centre MK, but it is another case to drive people away from the beauty of the trees by imposing parking charges.

What would Lord Campbell of Eskin, Chairman of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, make of that ?

What would he make of the park that bears his name being a location for drug dealing ? It is you know !

When the original book Not The Concrete Cows was published in 1994 nobody could ever have imagined how a city of trees could be trashed in the way it has been.

Twenty-two million trees in Milton Keynes.  Wonderful but not enough. England has the lowest tree population by area of any country in Europe. Milton Keynes claims it wants to be the greenest local authority in the world. That is a totally unrealistic ambition but if only it could be achieved then the dream for Milton Keynes to become a city might just become a reality.

Scientists say that 240 trees can offset the use of one car's emissions for one year. At the time of writing Milton Keynes has a population of 230,000. If we could double the number of trees we have in Milton Keynes then car use would be neutralised.

If the Milton Keynes Development Corporation's policy that no building shall be taller than the surrounding trees. If one hundred new trees were planted per head of population. If we could so this then the city bit in Milton Keynes A City Of Trees could be reaslised in a real city and not a dream.Surely that is a dream to far.

The rock singer Elvis Presley said that an ambition is only a dream fitted with a V8 engine. May I add to that reality is only an ambition fitted with a turbo charger.

DREAM - AMBITION - REALITY

So I am presenting you with a dream, will you make it an ambition and then together we can all make it a reality ? If every garden, every school, every open space in Milton Keynes were to become forever homes nor new trees how far would that move us towards ambition ?  A tree planted from The Woodland Trust costs a little more than one pound, let's say one pound twenty pence. twenty-two million trees would cost a bit less than twenty seven million pounds. Plant trees over a five year period and surely Milton Keynes Council could build that comfortably into its budget.

DREAM - AMBITION - REALITY ? So do we want to be Milton Dreams The City That Never Was or do we want to be Milton Keynes The City Of Trees and the greenest city in the world ?

Time to get up close and personal

FRIDAY 5th JUNE 2020:

Hang on - UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL ! How does that fit in with social distancing ?

I am not talking about bodies breaking government guidelines on social distancing. I am talking about hearts and love trashing any and all levels of distance to get up close and personal.

Writing now I am inviting you to get your heart up close and personal to someone who needs the greatest possible love of one human being to an other.

On 5th July, one week today, the government is going to STOP paying for our homeless rough-sleeping friends to be accommodated in hotels. It claims that it will fund local authorities to find longer-term homes for our friends. PERHAPS.  When it comes to Milton Keynes Council this authority has a long record of failure, a very long term record of failure. Even if it does suddenly magic accommodation do you seriously think this will work ? Milton Keynes Council does not have first idea when it comes to dealing with our friends. Putting a roof over someone's head is NOT the answer.

We are looking to re-opening the DREAMSAI LUNCH OF LOVE on Saturday 11th July. That

is FIVE weeks away as of tomorrow. NOW is the time to see how many people we can find who will support this beautiful event each Saturday.  Yesterday I had a very long telephone chat with Laxman, the head of Dreamsai, and on Tuesday Julie - Queen Of The Kettle, Jelena and I plan to have a socially distanced brainstorm chat in the open air.PLEASE DO NOT LET IT RAIN.

For those who do not know what The Dreamsai Lunch Of Love is all about let me explain.

The Indian teacher Sai talked about loving one another and ways in which we should do this.  That's a very simple resume. Food For Sai - is one project following his teaching, I then re-christened this DREAMSAI LUNCH OF LOVE.

It happens every Saturday at The Buzzy in Central Milton Keynes.

I call it the LUNCH OF LOVE but it is not just food.

Yes we do serve food at the lunch but the word LOVE is what it is all about.

EVERYTHING - YES EVERYTHING is up close and personal.

So how up close and personal are you prepared to get. I would like to share some of my brainstorm thinking, talk with Julie and Lena then offer up what we all think to Laxman at

Dreamsai.

Before I share initial ideas can I explain that our LUNCH OF LOVE is open to anyone and everyone. It is just not for our homeless and rough-sleeping friends. it does not matter if you have a single penny or an American Express Gold Card in your pocket everyone is welcome. Some come because they are hungry, some come because their are lonely,  some come because they are feeling depressed and need something positive in their lives, some are looking for help, some are looking for friendship. As we came to lock down we were just starting to work with the probation service and support ex-offenders.  FEED THE MIND - FEED THE BELLY - FEED THE HEART.

WHERE DOES ALL THIS HAPPEN ? It happens at The Buzzy - Unity Park Bus Station. The old bus station in Central Milton Keynes by the railway station.

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN ? Every Saturday 12.30pm to 1.30pm. People, however, always turn up early and many are not ready to leave at the end of the session. My personal suggestion is that we extend opening hours to 12noon to 2pm with 30 minutes set up and tidy up time.

FOOD: Dreamsai volunteers prepare meals at home which are microwaved and served hot at the session. As well as tea and coffee we provide cold soft drinks and cup-a-soup. We provide cake and biscuits. We were asked for toasties which became the most popular item on the menu. We provided cheese and ham toasties. We were just about to buy a second toasting machine when lock down came in.

I think it would be nice if we added to the menu hot dogs, apple pie and custard and ice cream.

PACKED TEA: We provide packed teas for people to take away. Each contains sandwiches - cheese, ham, chocolate spread, jam. Chocolate bar. Sausage roll. Item of fruit. Doughnut. Cake. Loose sweets. Packet of crisps.

WALK OF LOVE: At the end of the lunch we go round the tents and sleeping bags of friends who have not joined us giving them a packed tea.

TOMBOLA OF LOVE: Everyone gets a free tombola ticket with every ticket as a winner. Prizes are simple packets of sweets. We usually have thirty prizes. We need to have one or two higher value items.

DAVE'S DISCO: My radio show from the previous Thursday is played as background music. Guests can make requests for the following week's show.

FREEBIE BOX: This is a simple box of donated clothing items guests can take away.

PHONE CHARGING: Guests do plug in phone chargers. I suggest we have a small multi-socket unit set up as a charging bank. We provide £5 SIM cards to those who have no credit and no money to buy credit

PROJECT RONALD: Guests were being invited to sign cards of love to send to families with a child sick in hospital, the families staying in Ronald McDonald Houses. We then took the signed cards away to process them.  I am suggesting that we make a much bigger thing of this. Once the cards are signed we laminate them during the session then pack them into groups of 50 to post to different Ronald McDonald Houses.  We have certificates for those signing cards:  Bronze - 25  Silver - 50  Gold - 100 These we can run across sessions BUT I am suggesting A FIVER OF LOVE.  Every single guest who signs five cards is entered into a free prize draw. They get one entry for every five cards they sign. At the end of the session the winner is drawn to win FIVE x £1 National Lottery Scratch Cards.

OK I am going to leave it there right now. Tell me what you think. More tomorrow.

Milton Dreams - The City That Never Was - Chapter Twenty-Two

Three Helicopters, An Atomic Bomb And A Naked Sunbather

There you go !  I new you would skip earlier chapters to get to this bit. Well you are going to have to read through the helicopters until I tell you about the nuclear bomb and I warn you now the naked sunbather will come as something of an anti-climax. So there !

All of these events, now legends, happened at Leon School.

I was walking across what was the lower school playground when a police car, blue lights flashing tore through the gates.  An officer jumped out: "I need to speak immediately with a senior member of staff."

"Well I am a senior member of staff," I stuttered.

"I need to land a helicopter in your field in five minutes time."

"Ok."

So if I had said sod off would the helicopter have gone away ?  No, it was going to land what ever. My job was to stop anyone walking out on to the field. Fortunately there was no PE taking place on field right then. I raced round classrooms facing on to the field and warned the teachers of the landing.

Apparently somebody has seen somebody take a pram with a baby in it and walk off. The helicopter was going to take the witness for a trip over Bletchley to see if the baby, pram and abductor could be spotted. It was all a mix up, the person taking the pram was legitimate and the baby was safe. Well at least the witness did get to have a ride in a police helicopter.

Helicopter number two.  It was a Friday afternoon, I was sitting in my office hard at work. The next morning I was due to fly to San Francisco with a group of students taking part in a school exchange.  I was nervous and I had a lot of work to do. The office door opened and in walked Headmaster Bruce Abbott. 

"Red Nose Day !"

Yeh, I had heard about that, it was that day to be the first ever Comic Relief but I really was not interested. An eleven hour flight to San Francisco was uppermost in my mind.

"I want you to get the whole of your year group out on to the filed. Line everyone up so they form the words RED, NOSE and DAY.  There's a press helicopter coming over in thirty minutes time with a press photographer on board."

"But Mr Abbott, can't you get another head of year to do it. I'm ever so busy."

"No, I want your year group and I want you to do it."

Well we did do it. The helicopter came, did some very low passes, the photograph thyen appeared on the front page of a newspaper.  When I told staff at Sutter Junior High School in California they could not comprehend the concept of Red Nose Day. Neither could I for that matter.

One more helicopter before the atomic bomb or are you waiting for me to tell you about the naked sunbather !

This third helicopter is the helicopter that never was and to tell you the story of the celebrity behind it is perhaps politically incorrect but that does not change what happened so let me share the story.

Someone in my year group had written to Jimmy Saville asking if, as a birthday present, she could meet some boy band or other as part of the show Jim'll Fix It. (I'll leave Jimmy Saville out of it now as I tell you the rest of the story.)  I am not sure which boy band it was, they were just starting their career.  I think it was Westlife but can not be certain. I have looked at some of their early photographs and am pretty sure it was them.

OK. So the show's producer wrote to Bruce Abbott and in his usual way it was a case of Dave Ashford you sort it. The secrecy surrounding all this would make Bletchley Park and Enigma resemble a TV soap opera with an audience measured in millions. On a Sunday afternoon Headmaster Abbott and I secretly met with the show's producer and camera team to make a plan.

The plan. Westlife would be smuggled into the school and wait in my office. The class including the girl who had written to Jim'll Fix It would have their geography lesson not in their normal classroom but in the lecture theatre which was bigger and better for filming. The girl's parents were in on it, the geography teacher had to be let in on the secret and I needed my secretary to be in the know but that was it. I am not sure but I think we all had to sign a confidentiality agreement.

I would interrupt the geography lesson, apologise and say there was someone who needed to see one of the students. Westlife would then burst in, kidnap the girl and whisk her away in a helicopter to the TV studio where Jimmy Saville would be waiting to record the show's episode.

The production company would charter the helicopter but I would have to get permission for it to land and take off again. Couldn't be difficult could it, after all I had let that cop helicopter land by giving permission myself. Not so.  I had to deal with the Civil Aviation Authority who said I needed to get permission from the owners of the land on which the school stood. That was Buckinghamshire County Council. The red tape twisters at the council said I had to get permission from the owners of the land on which once stood The London Brick Company, now Newton Leys, for the helicopter to fly over. Then I had to get British Rail to say the helicopter landing did not pose a risk to health and safety given the power lines of the railway running adjacent to the school. Flippin' Heck ! Anyway I did it.

Came the big day and I was faced with two problems. One was Westlife and one was a call from the helicopter company saying the cloud base was too low for it to land !  The TV producer said no problem, Westlife and the girl would use a stretched limo. Could I please fix it ? Where the heck was I meant to get a stretched limo from ?  I did not have a clue but fortunately my secretary did. Thank god for that or we would have had to use the school mini-'bus !

Westlife !  If I had had my way I'd have put them all in detention. The idea was that they needed to HIDE in my office. One by one they each needed to go out for  wee and any and every other excuse they could find. I kept telling them to keep their voices down. One wanted to use my office phone to call the group's record producer and I quote, put some bigger balls into the mix of their next record. I had the film crew and TV producer with me so my office was rather full with people.

At last came the time to make our way to the lecture theatre. As we made our way across the school the jungle drums began to beat: Why's Mr Ashford got that boy band with him ?  What's happening ?  It wouldn't have been so bad if they did as I told them instead of waving at anyone and everyone they saw at any distance.

Eventually I opened the door or the lecture theatre, spoke my scripted words with a camera filming over my right ear. Westlife burst in and caused a riot. That was it. The helicopter that never was.

I think it was Westlife, it was some boy band or other. Too bad if it was a different group, I'd have still put the whole lot of them into detention if I had my way. A legend does not have to be one hundred percent truth does it ?  The story unfolded exactly as I have related, too bad if it was a different pop group to Westlife.

OK, the atomic bomb. Patience, I will get to the naked sunbather. Eventually !

If Hitler had known about Bletchley Park he would have certainly instructed the Luftwaffe to make it their primary target. As it is legend says only one bomb was dropped on Bletchley during World War Two. It landed and exploded in an empty field where in later years the sculpture Leonasaurus would stand. The lone German pilot may have been aiming for the railway line, if he was he missed. If he thought he would blow up some potatoes it was the wrong time of the year and the farmer had yet to plant the next season's crop. But I am not talking about a German high explosive bomb from the early 1940's I am talking about an atomic bomb from The Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics.

During The Cold War, for those of us who lived through it, it was not a case of if there is a nuclear holocaust but when will that holocaust come. The government set up a tree minute warning system to let the population know that in one hundred and eighty seconds we would all be blown to smithereens

Some knew, I do not think it was a secret, that on top of the lower school tower block at Leon was the nuclear warning siren. How far would it be, three or four hundred yards from where that German bomb fell ?  The siren to warn all of Bletchley, indeed all of Milton Keynes that in three minutes time the entire new city would explode and vanish from the face of the earth. It was never sounded of course. I wonder if the siren is still there.

Now we come to the bit you have all been waiting for but I have warned you it is an anti-climax.

I was taking a class on the first floor of the lower school tower block. My classroom looked out on the field. On the other side of the building Mr John Shiner's classroom looked over Serpentine Court. One warm summer's day he came into my room and asked if I would kindly step inside his room. The class members were trying hard to stifle guffaws as they looked to Serpentine Court where a lady was sprawled out on her balcony sunbathing in the nude. Miss Milton Keynes 1980whaterveryearitwas she was not. Miss Serpentine Court 1807 perhaps ?  

"What do you think we should do ?"  Shiner asked.

"Hang on," I replied, "I will go and get some vomit bags for your pupils."

See I told you this was an anti-climax didn't I ?

Stepping up the level of failure

THURSDAY 4th JUNE 2020

So the prime minister, do you remember who he is, now says he is to take personal charge of the fight against the pandemic.

So where has he been since lock down was imposed in March and if he was not in charge before yesterday than who was ?

Let's leave that as a rhetorical question for the moment. I will come back to it.

I write this daily blog primarily for myself, readers on Blogger each day now and then get into double figures.  I try to write for generations in the years, decades and centuries to come as a cyber time capsule.

When I began writing towards the end of March 2020 I thought we had in Boris Johnson a man who would be the greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill. How wrong could I have been ?

Let me list all prime ministers who have been in office during my lifetime and let me grade each in my arrogant and subjective opinion on a scale of 1 to 10 where Winston Churchill is 10 and Boris Johnson is 1.

OK here we go.............

WINSTON CHURCHILL - 10

ANTHONY EDEN - 4

HAROLD McMILLAN - 7

ALEC DOUGLAS-HOME - 5

EDWARD HEATH - 2

HAROLD WILSON - 6

MARGARET THATCHER - 8

JOHN MAJOR - 4

TONY BLAIR - 2

GORDON BROWN - 3

DAVID CAMERON - 2

THERESA MAY - 2

BORIS JOHNSON - 1

The day before yesterday there were 324 deaths in the UK, yesterday the death rate went up by  more than 10% to 359. Even given that our failing government is messing around with a variety of measures which common sense says will add to the failure.  Correct me if I am wrong but all deaths in all countries in Europe do not add up to the 359 lives lost in the UK.

This can only be down to the failure of our government to properly lead the country. Back to my question, if Boris Johnson was not leading the nation then who was.  True, Johnson was seriously ill for a short period doing the three months of lock down but should that not have inspired him to "lead".

So who was leading ?  May I suggest we had a joint leadership in Boris Cummings-Johnson. NO, we should not be drawing a line under the Cummings affair. Drawing a line came from our failing prime minister. His saying yesterday that he will now personally lead the fight is just a revelation  that all along we have had a joint prime ministership in Boris Cummings-Johnson.

I hope I am wrong, I hope so much that I am wrong. NOT for the place in history of Boris Cummings-Johnson but for the lives of REAL people which will be lost in heartbreak and tears every day if we continued to be denied proper leadership.

Is Corona Virus racist ?

WEDNESDAY 3rd JUNE 2020:

Is corona virus racist ?  Well is it ?

I was 9 years old when I first saw a black man. A new pupil joined our school, a new pupil who was black. When I told my mother she said that she hoped we white boys were not teasing him. No way !  He was a novelty, something special, we all wanted to be friends with him.

In the second year of senior school we had a PE and English teacher, an Indian man by the name of Mr Rashid. Honestly, he was the best teacher in the entire school.

Leaving school I became a management trainee in a large department store. Our department had a Pakistani lad the same age as me who was a porter. Nobody could pronounce his name so we all called him Mr Ram. He and I got on very well and were friends. This was frowned upon, not because he was black and I was white but simply because management should not fraternise with lower class porters.

Anticipating the radio station re-opening soon I have been working on playlists. Yesterday I was digging out tracks from 1960, I was nine years old at the time these records were released.  I could remember the music from my childhood but had not realised until I was pulling things up on YouTube who was black and who was white. Race did nd does not mean a thing, black or white the music is great.

I am an Englishman. I have always said that if I were not an Englishman I would like to be Barbadian.  Barbados is the most beautiful place I have ever visited. It is not the palm trees and the beaches that  make it beautiful, it is the people. Everywhere you go people stop you and say: Welcome to our beautiful island.  BUT it is not the white Barbadians who say that, only the black Barbadins say it. I would most definitely want to be a black Barbadian.

Within my ancestors we have many celebrated people: William Ashford the landscape painter, Thomas Ashford who won the Victoria Cross, Daisy Ashford the author, Mary Ashford whose murder changed the law of England.  I am proud of my ancestors.  I have another Ashford, I am racking my brains for his first name but I can not recall it. That must show I am not so proud of him and do not want to boast about him.  Anyway this Ashford was a colonial official on the British Empire island of Antigua in the Caribbean. When Britain abolished slavery in its empire this man had to free his slaves. He did not have many slaves, just a few house servants but he was still a slave owner. Now I can not remember is name.

America is in a hideous situation right now following excess force by a white policeman killing a black  man he was arresting. There has been outrage around the world.

So is Corona Virus racist ?  If it is it is also sexist and ageist. Yesterday 324 people died in Britain. Each one a human being with those who loved him/her. Love does not respect racial, age or sexual barriers. 

There is only one race, the human race.  In the canine world dogs come in different colours, do you love your dog any less because he is black. NO that is not silly. Think about it.

DNA in non white people is different, I know that from the work I have done promoting organ donation and transplant. It could be that corona virus is killing disproportionately non white people or could it be that there is a greater proportion of non white people at the front of our war against corona virus ? A greater proportion of non white people showing love for all races without regard to ethnicity.  Ethnicity, that's not a nice word is it ?

Milton Dreams - The City That Never Was - Chapter Ten

A Hidden And Now Forgotten Landmark
Behind the trees trees, totally obscured from view is a Milton Keynes Landmark. In  Not The Concrete Cows I referred to it as a Forgotten Landmark. Today does anyone know it is there.

Officially the railway bridge crossing Wattling Street in Bletchley is known as Denbigh Hall Bridge but to those who understand its significance it is and always will be Leon Bridge.

So why Leon Bridge ?  Leon as in Sir Herbert Leon, financier, member of parliament and First Baronet of Bletchley Park ?

Behind the shrubbery of today is a plaque erected by Sir Herbert on which is written. 

PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER 1838 THE SOUTHERN PART OF THIS RAILWAY TERMINATED AT THIS BRIDGE WHENCE PASSENGERS WERE CONVEYED BY COACH TO RUGBY WHERE THEY REJOINED THE RAILWAY TO BIRMINGHAM. THIS COMMEMORATION BY SIR HERBERT LEON BART OF BLETCHLEY PARK AND BY KIND PERMISSION OF LRNW RAILWAY AUGUST 1920.

Why was that ?  Why get off a train then travel by horse-drawn carriage and get back on a train further up the road ?

Drive north along the A5 Watling Street and to your right in a field near Kilsby you will see a castle. Actually this is not a castle it is a ventilation shaft for Kilsby Railway Tunnel.

At 2,432 yards long when it was opened Kilsby Tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world. It was designed by Robert Stephenson. Until the tunnel was completed passengers had to disembark at Denbigh Hall and take a coach.

Not The Concrete Cows. Partly my words and partly those of the late Sir Frank Markham in his book The History Of Milton Keynes And District, this is what Not The Concrete Cows has to say about Leon Bridge.

Denbigh Hall was chosen as the terminus because it was there that the railway line crossed the Wattling Street but no proper facilities were installed for the passengers. There was no sanitation, no proper accommodation, tents often being the only overnight shelter and mud everywhere. Railway construction workers were billeted at Denbigh Hall and drunken brawls were commonplace.One passenger described Bletchley as "a small miserable village where those disappointed at getting from Denbigh Hall must not expect to find accommodation even for their dog !"

The only place to find any refreshment was the Denbigh Hall Inn which had the most terrible reputation for previously harbouring highwaymen and criminals and for generally being a bawdy house. At least three murders took place in the locality which, two centuries earlier had been the site for the local gallows.

It can not be right to allow the legend of Leon Bridge to be lost can it ?  But even if the trees were cut back the traffic on Wattling Street today would make visiting the plaque and words of Sir Herbert dangerous.

Removing Sir Herbert's plaque and re-siting it at the walkway on the opposite side of the bridge would mean cutting away the trees. Is that a good idea ? Perhaps a replica would be the answer.

How could this be made to happen ?

Located in Milton Keynes is the headquarters of National Rail which today is responsible for maintaining Leon Bridge aka Denbigh Hall Bridge. Do you think we could persuade them to take this forgotten landmark out of obscurity and bring to life again the bridge's history through the words of Sir Herbert Leon ?

Vulnerable BIG TIME

TUESDAY 2nd JUNE 2020:

Yesterday I was speaking about vulnerable people in society. Today I want to speak about highly vulnerable people who our government is conspiring to destroy in a time bomb of mental health. Pandemic or no pandemic this has been going on for decades. I am talking about those in prison.  In writing I am drawing on bits and pieces of  my personal experience covering forty years.

The justice system is supposed to deal with an offender in three ways: Retribution, Reformation and Rehabilitation.

RETRIBUTION our prison system is very good at this. Basically it means getting your own back - eye for an eye and so on. Fair enough BUT - REFORMATION is something the system puts two fingers up to. Why waste time trying to reform a prisoner and stop him/her re offending. Why would you ever want to make the prison system redundant ?  REHABILITATION - sod that !  In Milton Keynes we have prisoners released into a situation of being homeless, only an armchair at night in which to sleep prevents their being rough-sleepers !

80% of released prisoners will re offend ! EIGHTY PERCENT. Would our NHS be acceptable operating at an 80% rate of failure ?  Schools, education - 80% failure rate !

You do not need  a Phd in criminology to understand why this 80% failure rate is in place. Prisoners go in to prison without a drug habit but come out with one. Suicide rates are high, too high. Silly idiots go to prison and come out as repeat offenders.

Just as there are supposedly three aspects to justice so criminals can be classified into three categories. There are those who have evil in their DNA, serial rapists and murderers, pedophiles. You are not going to reform them, best thing indeed is to lock them up and throw away they keys. Then we have major crime where people run this as a business, chances they are not going to be caught and brought into the system. The vast majority are stupid people and victims who were in the wrong place, situation and time. If the system wanted to these people could be so easily reformed but that is not what the government wants is it ?  Got to keep the prison population up and the best way to do this is to fail.

As head of year at Leon School I was involved in a system to work with teenage offenders. I bet that goes not apply any more. I once applied to join the education team at Bedford Prison, touring the prison the only people I found who talked sense were the prisoners. No thank you, I withdrew my application.

I expressed an interest in being a prison visitor at Woodhill Prison. Again once I had seen inside the prison I said NO THANK YOU.

I did do a little bit of prison visiting at another prison. From this I will share one experience. Lining up for admission I used to like speaking with family members, giving them advice and support to negotiate the cruel way they were treated. These people had not broken the law so why treat them like dirt ?  On one occasion waiting to be searched a screw, I use the word with purpose and the man had a screwed mentality, said to me; You are in the wrong line Sir, legal visits are over there. I explained that I was not a lawyer, just a visitor. This screw then said very loudly in front of all others Well you don't look like them !

About a year ago The Guardian published a feature on the failing privatised probation service. In September 2019 I was accepted by The Justice Department to have a community payback team work in the grounds of our local hospital but failure after failure after failure on the part of Thames Valley Probation prevented anything happening.  I engaged support from my member of parliament but then the pandemic took over and that was the end of that.

As I write there are 83,618 people in prison in the UK. England has the highest prison population in Europe.  Every one of those prisoners is currently denied visits from family member. They are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day. 23 hours a day without meaningful activity. many are denied proper medical attention for physical welfare. ALL are denied medical support for mental health issues, indeed the system is fast tracking depression and mental illness. If you treated an animal the way our prison population is currently being treated the RSPCA, pandemic or no pandemic, would come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Our failing justice system every day takes vulnerable people and amplifies their criminality. Right now as well as doing that a time bomb of mental health issues is being fabricated.  Just wait until that time bomb explodes !

Milton Dreams - The City That Never Was - Chapter Eleven

A BEAUTIFUL BUT TRAGIC LANDMARK:
It is a place of beauty. On a day to day basis it is seldom considered and often forgotten. It is, however, one of the greatest legends in Milton Keynes. Sadly it is also a location of error and tragedy.

There are one hundred and sixty-six locks on The Grand Union Canal, one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine across the entire waterway network. Fenny Lock is the smallest of all. 

A lock adjusts the water level allowing a boat to climb up or descend an incline. That is what Fenny Lock does, raising and lowering the water level by just four inches it is the smallest lock on the network.

So what did the original Not The Concrete Cows have to say on the subject ?

Stony Stratford established itself in the north of the city about the turnpike road map of the early industrial revolution but even with the new road improvements it was still a very costly way to move freight by stage-wagons. Enter the age of the canal. By 1830 Britain had over four thousand miles of canals and barges capable of carrying loads of up to one hundred tons.

The story of the canal in Milton Keynes began one June evening in 1792 in a room above an inn in Stony Stratford. There met The Marquis of Buckingham, several local men of substance and one James Barnes, an engineer who had worked with the father of England's canal system James Brindley. Barnes proposed linking London with the industrial midlands by way of Linslade, Solbury, Stoke Hammond, Fenny Stratford, Simpson, Woughton, The Woolstones, Linford and Wolverton. He had costed the project at £500,000. The meeting agreed to his plan and promised the finance. In April 1795 parliament passed The Grand Junction Canal Act (the canal was renamed The Grand Union Canal in 1929.) and work began immediately at both ends of the intended waterway.

Only two years later, Saturday 31st May 1800, The Marquis of Buckingham and his fellow shareholders officially opened the first section of the canal from Tring to Fenny Stratford. It was a carnival of a day with bands, cannons firing, the ringing of church bells and a grand parade with members of the Buckinghamshire Militia.

Charges were set for freight on the canal at:Three quarters of a penny per ton per mile for coal, half a penny per mile for livestock, one quarter of a penny per mile for limestone, one penny per mile for all other goods.

The Marquis of Buckingham and his fellow shareholders looked forward to enjoying considerable profits from their investments. And they were not to be disappointed. In 1832 a £1 share in the company, had risen in value to two pounds ten shillings and a dividend of 13% was declared.

So Fenny Stratford saw the opening of The Grand Junction Canal and with it came a period of some considerable change in the area. But it is not just the initial opening that entitles Fenny to claim fame within the history of Britain's inland waterways. The lock opposite The Red Lion is the smallest lock in the entire system, adjusting the water by only twelve inches.

One explanation for Fenny being the smallest lock on the network is the two sections of the canal being navigated to meet there but it was found the two sections were at different levels. Fenny Lock was installed to correct the error. This explanation is widely accepted and has formed into a legend among those who live in the locality. It's a nice little story and I (David) rather hope it is true but the odds are against it.

The more accepted explanation among those who profess to be authorities upon this part of our heritage claim that the lock was indeed installed  to correct an engineering difficulty but not one of the dug levels.It was intended to run the course of the canal all the way north to Cosgrove without a lock but that would have entailed banking up the canal side by several feet all the way from Fenny Stratford to Woughton. No matter how the engineers tried to overcome the problem the bank persisted in leaking. They were faced with either cementing the bank in order to make it watertight or installing a lock and so reducing the water level. They chose the later.

I concluded that original chapter in Not The Concrete Cows with: My father-in-law recalls as a boy being taught in school that the engineer responsible for the Fenny Stratford section of the waterway committed suicide. It would appear which ever the error he could not face up to the disgrace. So Fenny Lock has gone down in history both as the site of the official opening of the waterway and as a cover up for a monumental engineering mistake.