MK Today - Monday 27th March 2023

MILTON KEYNES RAILWAY LEGENDS – Lots of them…..

Who remembers The White Hart pub on Whaddon Way Bletchley ? For a short time a friend of mine was the landlord. He put Billy J Kramer on stage. He asked me to help out on the night of Bill J’s performance. My job was to look after Billy J ! What a privilege that was.

Who remembers some of Billy J Kramer’s hits ? Little Children. Trains and Boats and Planes.

It’s trains and boats and planes I am going to talk about over the course of this week with each related to Milton Keynes. I am dipping into my book MILTONKEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND to share some special icons within Milton Keynes, some of which are in danger of being lost.

So today let’s start with TRAINS.

Leon Bridge: I guess this is the logical place to start.

Prior to September 1838 the southern part of this railway terminated at this bridge when passengers were conveyed by coach to rugby where they re-joined the railway to Birmingham. This commemoration by Sir Herbert Leon Bart of Bletchley Park by kind permission of the LRMW railway August 1920

Words placed by Sir Herbert Leon on Denbigh Hall Bridge, a legend I discuss in great length within Milton Keynes The City Of Legend.

Who built the London to Birmingham Railway via Denbigh Hall Bridge ? Robert Stephenson was the engineer behind the first inter-city line to be built into London. The Parliamentary Act authorising its construction was passed on 6^th  May 1833.

Denbigh Hall Bridge aka Leon Bridge is not just a Milton Keynes legend but one of great importance across the entire British railway network.

Three dates here:

6^th May 1833 – That was a Monday by the way: King William IV was on the throne and Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey was Prime Minister. (Did he have anything to do with a cup of tea and the Bletchley Teabag by any chance !)

September 1838: Queen Victoria was our monarch and William Lamb 2^nd Viscount Melborne was prime minister.

August 1920: George V was on the throne and David Lloyd George was living in 10 Downing Street.

Sir Herbert Leon who was knighted within the coronation honours of King George V was a friend of David Lloyd George who I am sure knew of Leon’s celebrating the importance of Denbigh Hall Bridge.

That importance has long been lost and forgotten. Now in 2023 with King Charles III as our monarch and Rishi Sunak with his feet under the desk at 10 Downing Street I want so much to help restore the words of Sir Herbert Leon and place this Milton Keynes landmark of legend in the place of honour it deserves. SADLY our present member of parliament is not interested.

Let me take a few words from the bridge’s inscription: Park by kind permission of the LRMW railway August 1920. Leon and the railway were not exactly best of friends.

The railway ran alongside one side of the Leon estate and in the days of steam trains soot collected on Sir Herbert’s property. Large metal plates were put in the trees and cleaned every week to try and stop soot collecting in Bletchley Park. However, they failed to stop it entirely and Sir Herbert sued the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company winning the case but being awarded damages of just one shilling (5p).

Night Mail by W H Auden:

This is the night mail crossing the Border,

Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,

The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Dating from 1936 there are no fewer than nine versions to be found on YouTube.

Listen to the words and you will hear the genius of poet W H Auden beating the rhythm of the train in the verse.

The Night Mail is a 1936 documentary film produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. GPO = Royal Mail today. The twenty-four minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway (The same railway Leon had sued in court) from London to Scotland and the staff who operate it. The route passed through Milton Keynes and the train crossed Leon Bridge.

This was a TPO train. TPO – Travelling Post Office. Mail was collected along the route, sorted by postal workers and dropped off here, there and everywhere from London to Scotland. The train did not need to stop to pick up and collect letters. They were hung out in sacks by the side of the line and scooped up by a net hung out by staff. Sorted letters were bagged up and thrown out to be caught in similar nets.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,

Letters of joy from girl and boy,

Receipted bills and invitations

To inspect new stock or to visit relations,

And applications for situations,

And timid lovers’ declarations,

And gossip, gossip from all the nations,

News circumstantial, news financial,

Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,

Letters with faces scrawled on the margin,

Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,

Letters to Scotland from the South of France,

Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands

Written on paper of every hue,

The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,

The chatty, the catty, the boring, the adoring,

The cold and official and the heart’s outpouring,

Clever, stupid, short and long,

The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

If you watch the film on YouTube you will find one of those postal nets is located, as the film’s commentary explains, in Bletchley . This is probably somewhere near where the Lakes Estate stands today.

Great Train Robbery:

Is what I am about to share truth or is it simply a legend ?

8th August 1963, I was twelve years old and remember it well. As the news broke the nation was stunned. Stunned but there was a bit of excitement and even admiration for the bravado of those involved.

A TPO train carrying used bank notes from bank to bank was robbed at Bridego Bridge, South of Milton Keynes.  Get it right, there was no Milton Keynes then - South of Bletchley. The robbers got away with £2.6 million - £53.5 million in today's money.

The bridge has not changed a lot in fifty-six years and is, rightfully, a legend. But what is not known is how Bletchley features in this legend.

In 1971, shortly after I moved to live in Milton Keynes, I was given a tour of Bletchley by the man who had been the editor of the Bletchley Gazette at the time of the robbery. He told me the train was towed into sidings at Bletchley Station for the police to investigate. I have since been told that it was not the original train in Bletchley Station but another placed there for the benefit of the media.

Bletchley played a major part in the investigation. Did it ? Or was it just a deception ?

In 1981 I was called to jury service at Aylesbury Crown Court where I sat in the very courtroom where The Great Train Robbers were sentenced. On.8th August 2019, the anniversary of the robbery,  I drove to Bridego Bridge and looked at the scene. The bridge has not changed but the railway has, Virgin Trains raced across it at speeds approaching 100mph. The train that was robbed was a TPO - Travelling Post Office. Postal Workers sorted the mail as the train moved along. Mail was picked up and dropped off along the way.

Let me take you back to W H Auden's poem The Night Mail ?

It was a night mail that was robbed. A night mail that was also being used to transport physical bank notes before the age we know today of electronic transfers

When you put a letter into a post box it becomes the property of The King until it is delivered. So, in effect, The Great Train Robbers were stealing from The Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizbeth II. Ronald Biggs, Charles Wilson, Douglas Goody, Thomas Wisbey, Robert Welch, James Hussey and Roy James - were jailed for 30 years each. Incredibly harsh sentences but set as an example to other would-be train robbers.

It's about ten miles from Bletchley to Bridego Bridge yet both are locked together in history and in legend. Either as the location for the police to examine the train or just for a replica to

keep the media happy The Great Train Robbery has a legendary place in Bletchley and Milton Keynes.

Wolverton Works:

Too often when we talk about Milton Keynes Wolverton gets pushed aside. This is so wrong, so very wrong. It pours legend into our City’s heritage and is at the centre, literally, of our railway system.

The home once upon a time of Wolverton Works maintaining the railway the location of the works was chosen for Wolverton because it was mid-way between Birmingham and London. In the early days of our New City Wolverton Works was one of our biggest employers.

Sadly that has all gone, not into history but into heritage. Wolverton has found a new identity but never forget its importance within our railway. Within that importance is Royal Patronage, it was the home of The Royal Train. Of all the locations across all railway tracks in the country this honour was given to Wolverton.

Bletchley:

Wolverton Railway Station in the north of our New City and in the south Bletchley. Not a lot more in the childhood days of our New City than fields between them, fields with their grazing concrete cows.

In the early days of Milton Keynes Bletchley was the greater used station. As a student teacher in Bletchley Park it was my access point to and from my home in the Midlands. It was also the gateway to London, who remembers the 25p (Or was it 50p) Night Flier return tickets to London. I used this bargain ticket to watch Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palace Theatre in London.

I remember a super coffee shop on one of the platforms and I can recall the giant signal box, known as the power box controlling rail traffic way beyond Milton Keynes. I never went there but everyone knew of the Railway Club adjacent to Bletchley Station where only the very best entertainment was ever on offer.

Wellthere you go – Milton Keynes A City Of Legends – SO MANY RAILWAY LEGENDS.

On Wednesday we will let Billy J sing about BOATS. Boats in Milton Keynes ?  We are a bit far away from the coast are we not ?

Watch this space !

MK Today - Friday 24th March 2023

How many live in Milton Keynes ?

It’s about a quarter of a million isn’t it ?

I’m not talking people, I am talking lives. There are twenty-two million trees in the City of Milton Keynes, how many birds, how many insects live in a tree ?

A single oak tree can shelter one hundred and forty-seven birds and the same oak can shelter two hundred and eighty insects.

147 + 280 = I don’t need a calculator for that ! 147 + 280 = 427

Now four hundred and twenty seven multiplied by twenty-two million. 

Where is that calculator ?

427 x 22,000,000 = 9,394,000,000 !

Are you old enough to remember the time when you had to clean the dead insects from your car’s windscreen ? It’s not a case of insects have learned the Green Cross Code and so no longer splatter themselves on cars, in the last twenty years our insect population has declined by SIXTY percent.

Around 7% of the population use vapes. 7% of quarter of a million people living in Milton Keynes equals 17,500. How many of these drop their empty vapes on the ground ?

Taking part in the RSPCA litter pick this week Doggie Barnaby and I have found that vapes are the number one item of rubbish we collect.

Vapes contains nicotine, which is toxic to wildlife. There are potentially other ingredients in vape juice that are aerosolized and can also be problematic for animals. Not to mention, elements such as THC, propylene glycol, and even formaldehyde can carry their own toxic

risks. That’s what Mr Google says.

The second biggest item in our RSPCA litter pick are empty cigarette packets. A packet of twenty cigarettes following the recent budget cost £14.39. NOT ENOUGH ! Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer £114,39 would be better.

How much can a littering criminal be fined ? YES, dropping litter including vapes and cigarettes is a criminal offence ?  Mr Google can you please answer that question for us.

Dropping litter is illegal. People who drop litter can be fined or face prosecution in court. Authorised officers have the power to issue a fixed penalty charge of up to £150 for a litter offence, as an alternative to prosecution. If the offender is prosecuted and convicted in court, the fine could rise to £2,500.

I keep speaking about this but Milton Keynes is a scruffy city. Litter is disgusting. I was riding in a taxi along Fulmer Street last week when the driver had to negotiate a pile of litter in the middle of the road. If he hadn’t then we could both have ended up in hospital.

Where is the hospital for the insects, the butterflies and birds who are victims of Milton Keynes litter ?

What’s a cuckoo ? No I am not talking about a drug dealer taking over a property, I am speaking about the bird whose unique song was always a sign of spring. The cuckoo bird is not extinct worldwide but you will not find one in England. How long before the sparrow, the robin, thrush and blackbird are extinct ?

Depends how quickly the mentality of the litter buggers can throw down that which they do.

Milton Keynes likes to think it is a green city. Exclude Central Milton Keynes and it is. We have some beautiful parkland, lakes and of course twenty-two million trees. However, Milton Keynes is NOT biodiverse. Not never no way. Litter buggers are responsible for such.

Another question. How many prisoners can be accommodated at Woodhill Milton Keynes ? Just over eight hundred. Can we please have a massif building programme to make room for all those who drop litter on the streets of our city, drop litter and harm our city’s biodiversity.

MK Today - Wednesday 22nd March 2023

A little reminder. The clocks go forward at 1am this coming Sunday 26^th March. Don’t know about you but I’ll be asleep at that time so I’ll set them before I go to bed.

Do they go forward or back. BRITISH SUMMER TIME – Spring – the clocks SPRING forward.

It was in 1916 the idea of advancing the clocks was introduced to aid the war effort. In 1972 it was named British Summer Time. I wasn’t around in 1916 but I was in 1972 and remember it well.

The very first time we had British Summer Time this was the UK’s Top Ten singles.

ONE– Without You by Nillson

TWO– Beg Steal Or Borrow by The New Seekers

THREE– American Pie by Don McLean

FOUR– Alone Again Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan

FIVE– Meet Me On The Corner by Lindisfarne

SIX– Mother And Child Reunion by Paul Simon

SEVEN– Hold Your Head Up by Argent

EIGHT– Got To Be There by Michael Jackson

NINE– Desiderata by Les Crane

TEN– Floy Joy by The Supremes

CLICK THE TITLES AND LISTEN ON YOUTUBE

FANTASTIC MUSIC ! But the most special melody in March 1972 is still at the top of nature’s pops here in March 2023.

My best friend Doggie Barnaby has a strict routine. 5.45am is tinkle time. Taking him downstairs I always stand in the garden with him while he does what he has to do. I look up to the trees, close my eyes and listen to the beautiful sound of the dawn chorus.

BARNABY is a dog. CAT Stevens is a singer. Before it failed and I was The Geriatric DJ doing the early morning show on Radio CRMK. The very first track I ever played was MORNING HAS BROKEN by Cat Stevens.

Morning has broken like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken like the first bird

We have blackbirds nesting in our garden. Come summer their little ones will turn up the volume of our garden’s dawn chorus.

Here’s a date for you to put in your diary, a special day here in Milton Keynes to listen to our city’s dawn chorus. WENESDAY 21^st June 2023 3.57am MIDSUMMER SOLSTICE. How many days between the dawn of British Summer Time and Midsummer ?  You do the Maths if you like.

I never tire of reminding my readers that the entire City of Milton Keynes was built around the

ley-line of Midsummer Boulevard. At 3.57 am on Wednesday 21^st June the sun will rise down the length of this street. The Milton Keynes Development Corporation planners with precise accuracy placed this on their strategic plan. As the new city was built everything was designed to meet Midsummer Boulevard when it was time for Central Milton Keynes to become a reality.

The plan was for the sun to rise over the hill but the cowboy planners within Milton Keynes DESTROYED this when a ridiculous shopping centre blocked the sun.

I have been playing some music in this edition of MK Today, let’s play something for Milton Keynes Cowboy Council: COWBOYS FROM HELL by Pantera. I wonder how many birds will sing their dawn chorus in Midsummer Boulevard of Midsummer Solstice. I’ll be there and will tell you.

But before then lets have a final bit of dawn chorus music. THE BIRDIE SONG from The Tweets. Were you a teenager in 1981 when that was a hit ? Do you remember the words to the disco dance ?

A little bit of this

And a little bit of that

And shake your xxxxx !

MK Today - Monday 20th March 2022

 

Every day of every week of every month of every year I am guilty of attempted murder. Every day of every week of every month of every year YOU are guilty of attempted murder.

Within Milton Keynes The City Of Legend there is a chapter where I tell about a day tutorial I attended at our Open University where a professor tried to teach representatives from different areas of society how to send electronic mail. NOT ONE OF MANAGED TO DO SO. The world wide web came into being in 1990, this session would have been shortly after. Wow, thirty-three years ago. How the world has changes, how society has changed !  For the better ?

Did you know that the postal service came into existence in 1516 when King Henry VIII knighted the First Master of the Posts Brian Tuke.

That was a bit before the Penny Black ! 1^st May 1840 this was the world’s first adhesivestamp.

Have you come across a stamp yet with King Charles III head on it ?  How many future monarchs will have their image on a postal stamp ? Possibly none.

Every day of every week of every month of every year I am guilty of attempted murder. Every day of every week of every month of every year YOU are guilty of attempted murder.

How many letters using stamps did you send yesterday ? How many e-mails did you send ? Every e-mail is an attempt at murder, murdering the Royal Mail. Every e-mail is trying to make Postman Pat redundant.

Need I say any more ?  Need an attempted murderer say anything to a fellow attempted murderer !

MK Today - Friday 17th March 2023

1.20pm Thursday 16^th March 2023. To say that I am writing these words ahead of MK Today’s edition for next Friday would be inaccurate. I am actually composing them in my head as I lay back on the blood donation bench while a pint of the red stuff is extracted from my arm. This is my thirty-eight donation and has been subject to a bit of a muddle.

The donation session should have been early January but following my accident and broken arm it had to be postponed. I should then have been laying back on a donation bed in the beautiful location of Christ The Cornerstone in Central Milton Keynes. Christ The Cornerstone where I always donate blood, the first purpose built ecumenical church in the country. In my book Milton Keynes The City of Legend I speak about Milton Keynes being the collective noun for a group of cathedrals. Faith, not the faith. I find those words rather special.

It was His Majesty King Charles III who put faith before the faith. When His Majesty is visied Central Milton Keynes it was to the beautiful Christ The Cornerstone he chose to celebrate the city charter bestowed within his mother’s Platinum Jubilee upon Milton Keynes. I was obliged to change my donation date again.

So here I am now on Thursday 16^th March, a line is in my arm and drawing blood. Blood which will help to save someone’s life.

Just a mile or so away from where I am now there is University Hospital Milton Keynes. That, of course, is not the real name of our City’s hospital but its letterhead and noticeboard are not large enough to accommodate Fantastic Amazing Beautiful Loving University Hospital Milton Keynes.  How many pints of blood does our hospital use every year to treat its patients ? Do you know ? The answer is SIX THOUSAND. That is, in round figures, seventeen pints a day.

Within my writing I hope the most read feature I have ever penned is MEET A COWARD. This is included in: Our Rebekah A Love Story From Our NHS, NHS – NATIONAL HAPPY SMILE and MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND. I tell of how in my arrogant youth I refused to

be a blood donor, refused because I was too scared to have a needle stick in my arm. Trust me it does not hurt. I seek every opportunity I can to spread the shame of my cowardice and encourage people to donate blood. Today is my 38^th donation, if I had not been such a miserable coward all those years ago it would be my 178^th !

I believe that everything in life needs to be up close and personal, you can’t get much more up close and personal than someone sicking a needle in you arm (Honestly) it does not hurt and drawing off a pint of the red stuff. But that is speaking from a physical perspective. Attending a blood donor session could so easily be like sitting on a conveyor belt but that is not how it is, the lovely NHS staff manning the donation session take the blood with love and treat each donor in a special personal way.

Within my writing about blood donation I have coined the phrase: Donate a pint of blood but give it with a gallon of love. Laying back here on the donation bed, actually it is more of a reclining chair, I am closing my eyes and thinking of the person who will receive my blood.

Up close and personal: That’s an elaborate way of saying LOVE.  The love I received on my thirty-eight donation, love from the incredible staff manning Christ The Cornerstone has injected love into every spot of blood leaving my arm. Yes I donated a pint of blood and I gave it with a gallon of love but the staff have added a tanker of beauty.

So now typing up these thoughts ready for my blood to find its way to a patient I am thinking who that person will be. Of course confidentiality will not tell me who received my blood but I will be told the hospital which receives it to care for a patient.

I have just booked my next donation appointment. Thursday 8^th June at 12.35pm, again at Christ The Cornerstone.

Are you a blood donor ? Get your love ready and sign up now: www.blood.co.uk

MK Today - Wednesday 15th March 2023

Leon – The School of Legend.

It’s coming up to Comic Relief or perhaps better called RED NOSE DAY.

Leon – The School of Legend. When it comes to Red Nose Day Leon was in on the ground floor – or should that be up in the sky ? How many of you know this legend ?

Leonite students were on the ground but it was the helicopter up in the air that took the photograph.

I was very busy working in my office when Headmaster Abbott walked in. The following day our first school visit to Sutter Junior High School in Sacramento California was happening and I was busy making final arrangements.

“A newspaper had chartered a helicopter,” Abbott explained. “Tomorrow is Red Nose Day and I want you to take your entire year group out onto the field, stand them in lines to spell red nose and then the helicopter will fly over and take pictures.”

What ! What was Red Nose Day ?  This was the first such event and I had never heard about it.

“I’m really, really busy can’t you get another year group to do it.”

“No, it’s your job now make it happen.”

Trying to line three hundred teenagers on the school playing field to spell RED   NOSE   DAY was mission impossible. I didn’t have a clue how to begin. The Leonites thought I had lost my mind and were not over keen to co-operate. Headmaster Abbott was bellowing orders through his megaphone. Chaos ! Chaos but we did manage to make it happen.

The sound of the approaching helicopter suddenly made it happen and the photograph of RED NOSE LEON SCHOOL hit the newspaper’s front page.

So when you see Red Nose Day, perhaps these days better known as Comic Relief, remember that Leon School added this to its portfolio of legend. The full report can be found in Milton Keynes TheCity Of Legend and the chapter Leon School The School Of Legend.

MK Today - Monday 13th March 2023

Born on Monday 5^th July 1948 the National Health Service is without any doubt at all the most iconic institution within our country. Thirty-six years later Milton Keynes Hospital opened its doors and today is the most celebrated legend in its own time here in the City of Milton Keynes.

My daughter was born the previous year, it was within its very early days that Milton Keynes General Hospital, as it was back then, diagnosed her to be suffering with chronic renal failure. And so began my almost four decade love of our NHS and my pride in what is now University Hospital Milton Keynes.

I keep shouting about this, not looking for sympathy but for love – love for our NHS and love for Milton Keynes Hospital. December last year I tripped over some rubbish in Morrissons car park. I felt my nose break but did not immediately become aware of other injuries including my misshapen right arm.

Attending A & E immediately a nurse began trying to stop my nose pouring blood. No long queue, waiting time two minutes perhaps. Half an hour to let the blood clot then off to have my arm x-rayed. The first of several x-rays that morning. I was treated not by one doctor but three as my arm was pulled back into shape and plastered. One week later I was under the surgeon’s knife having a metal plate placed in my arm. Then EVERY week until early March I received weekly therapy sessions.

ALL OF THIS DURING THE PRESENT NHS CRISIS ! I was told post-discharge if I need any further help all I had to do was to ask and it would be there ready and waiting for me.

People can only work within our front-line NHS if they genuinely love and care for people. Strikes are not really about pay but about respect and support. You can blame the government but its failure to respect and support our NHS is merely a reflection of society.

We were there weren’t we clapping for the NHS during covid. Supermarkets were giving NHS workers discounts on their shopping. But looking back we can now see just how shallow and empty this all was. Where has it all gone ? Was it genuine ? I fear not, at least not by my definition.

Recently I visited a vulnerable patient in University Hospital Milton Keynes. Due to their conditions patients were highly demanding, the ward was under-staffed but I watched exhausted staff caring with so much love for their patients. Not for one second did any staff member do less. Why is society, why is our government failing to show a similar level of love.

How much money do you earn ? The starting pay for a nurse is £27,055 per year. The salary for a backbench MP is £84,144. You need good qualifications and much training to be a nurse. You need love for people to be a nurse. You don’t need any of such to be a politician ! I am a pensioner on a limited income but I honestly would give 10% of my pension to give nurses a proper pay rise. Would you ?  Would our members of parliament ?

Last summer I held a garden party to support children who were sick in Milton Keynes Hospital, to send love to their families and support the front-line NHS staff who were caring for them. I sent a personal invitation to every single member of Milton Keynes Council asking them to come and show their love. When nobody replied I chased things up. One councillor, just one, kindly responded and made a generous donation to the cause. One member of the Regressive Alliance Party where politics come before people was quite rude in his response ! I sent four invitations to Milton Keynes Mayor, she failed to respond to each and every single one of them.

When I was a member of West Bletchley Council I proposed a motion of love during the pandemic and lockdown supporting our front-line key workers. This was hijacked and destroyed labour party for its own sad political gamesmanship. Regressive Alliance, proof that politics come before people !

My daughter spent most of her childhood in and out of hospital, Guys Hospital in London. I

defy anyone to find a photograph of her anywhere where she is not smiling. She was always known as Little Miss Sunshine. That Smile came from our NHS. HNS stands for National Health Service but within my vocabulary it stands for National Happy Smile.

Beck’s story is told in my book Our Rebekah A Love Story From Our NHS. After a kidney transplant she enjoyed a very happy life. Sadly the transplanted kidney began to fail but immediately she was again wrapped in a blanket of love, that blanket being within our beautiful Milton Keynes Hospital and Churchill Hospital in Oxford. When she died in May 2017 both hospitals threw their arms of love around my family. University Hospital Milton Keynes CEO Professor Harrison wrote to me and the nurse who had cared for Beck in the renal clinic attended her funeral.

If I live to be one hundred years of age I will never be able to repay the debt my family owes to our NHS. I try to repay part of the debt in my book NationalHappy Smile – My Story And Your Story.

Well, very briefly that is part of my story and love for our NHS. What is your story ?

NHS – National Happy Smile. I LOVE OUR NHS.

MK Today - Friday 10th March 2023

A bit of a rant and a rave today if I may.

When I was a kid it was considered bad manners to eat or drink as you walked along the street. Yes it was, the last thing you would have seen was somebody on the pavement clutching a cup of coffee !  If you did see such a happening it would have been your duty to call for an ambulance and have the unfortunate person taken off to the looney bin ! (A bit of out-dated and now politically incorrect language !)

Do you remember when there were notices in shops asking people not to use mobile phones while standing line waiting to be served ? That was around thirty years ago.

Dropping litter was once considered unacceptable. But back in those days in

contrast if your dog did a poo on the pavement you simply left it there. The edges of the pavement adjacent to the road was there ntr to delineate where motor vehicles and pedestrians belonged but to scrape dog poo off the sole of your shoes after you had accidentally stepped in it.

Speaking of dogs, call your vet and ask for an appointment. The receptionist is likely to say something like: Can you come along this afternoon or would tomorrow morning be better for you ?  Do the same for your doctor and providing your phone battery can  last long enough the response could well be: Do you by any chance have your diary for the year 2029 handy ?

I don’t wear glasses and certainly not rose tinted spectacles. I was born in the nineteen fifties, grew up and swung my way through the sixties, disco danced through the seventies, I was a yuppie (Do you know what one of those was) then gingerly stepped my way into older age. Now I am striding my way into Old, with a capital O - age. I do not by the way use a walking aid, in my day known as a walking stick !  In my opinion I am now living, you are living in a society where disrespect is the norm. We live in a society of ignorance and bad manners.

Milton Keynes is a filthy, scruffy city, something we all should be thoroughly and utterly ashamed of. At the beginning of last month I devoted an entire edition of MK Today to debating this situation. It is also a chapter in my book MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND. Litter is a legend we can do without. I tried to engage both my ward councillor and MP on the subject, both ignored my communications. Litter and the dropping of such = bad manners. Being a politician and ignoring communications from a real person = ignorance. (Ignoring being the verb and ignorance the noun.)

We have some truly beautiful parkland in Milton Keynes, my favourite and my Doggie Barnaby’s favourite place to walk is Ouzel Valley Park with Walton Lake and trees framing our unique centre of learning, the Open University. You do not need a degree from this world famous centre of academia to know that dropping litter is disrespectful. Actually it is more than that, it is harmful to wildlife. Some idiot after finishing a ridiculous cup of costa fortune coffee (small case letters) thought the right and proper thing to do was to throw the cup into the shrubbery adjacent to the path.

Dog poo is biodegradable but not so the brain cells of the semi-intelligent owners who think it acceptable to leave the poo where their canine left it. We have moved on from dog shit alley of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. If your dog does a poo today you pick it up and take said substance to the nearest poo bin. They are everywhere so no excuse for leaving it on the floor. I live in West Bletchley where the parish council provides free poo bags. Free or purchased from the local pet shop why do so many people walking through Ouzel Valley Park scoop up then poo, tie off the top of the bag then throw it on the floor !

Could someone please invent a phone app to track and trace such offenders ?

If Boris Johnson or Matt Handcock were to let their dogs poo and leave such where it fell no doubt the dog-poo-media would blaze such on its front pages.

Parkland in Milton Keynes is beautifully maintained by the Milton Keynes Parks Trust, it is disrespected by the Milton Keynes Dog Poo and Litter Mistrust.

Looney bin !  Let me be a little less twenty-first century political incorrect and dip into my nineteen sixties thesaurus: Funny Farm !

My generation’s colloquial for a telephone was to call it the blower. Blowers were provided by the GPO – General Post Office which had its regional training centre in Bletchley Park occupying the mansion which during the war had been the home of the codebreakers. Nowhere within such was there anyone who could have predicted the enigmatic folly of a mobile blower later to become the smart blower. Can a person blow smart ?

It is no secret that I hate, I despise, I totally loathe smart phone. If you were to gather together all the litter to be found in our city and pile it high on top of all the dog poo needing to be picked up across our parkland such would not equal the disrespect and ignorance of a single smart phone user.

In the Swinging Sixties if a kid wanted to ride a bicycle it was required, not by law but by society, to pass the Cycling Proficiency Test. Is there such a thing as the Cycling Proficiency Test today or is it now simply nothing more than an ap on a phone !  It is illegal to drive a motorised vehicle while using a phone, it is NOT illegal to ride a bicycle while using a phone.

Are you old enough to remember the Green Cross Code – look left, look right then look left again ? Again I am obliged to ask if this is now also a phone ap, people use them to cross the road neither looking left not right let alone looking left again. All they need to do is to look at their dumbo stupid smart phone.

We live in a society of ignorance and bad manners. Make that we live in a CITY of ignorance and bad manners.

Rant over.

MK Today - Wednesday 8th March 2023

Within my book MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND there is a chapter What’s In A Name where I look at the heritage behind various places within our new city. Coffee Hall estate is named after Coffee Hall Farm. Shenley Lodge was once known as Energy Park with all of its roads named after scientists who worked in the field of such engineering. Faraday Drive for instance. How many pupils, teachers even, attending Caroline Haslett School know who Caroline Haslett was ?

One road I do not talk about is Foxhunter Drive in Linford. Foxhunting was made illegal in 2004. I am a passionate animal lover and have recently adopted a beautiful little dog Barnaby from the RSPCA. He was the subject of a case brought against his original owners for cruelty beyond imagination. He is such a loving dog, my wife and I love him to bits and he loves us to bits. This cruelty did not happen in Milton Keynes but would it be acceptable to name his former home Dog Cruelty Drive ?

Slightly aside, it has just been announced that the oil to be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation will not include any animal ingredients. It will be vegan ! No animal cruelty for His Majesty.

Fox hunting was one of the most evil and cruel so called sports, is it acceptable then to have a road named after such terror ? Would you want to live in Foxhunter Drive ?  How about Pig Sty Road or perhaps Lamb Slaughter Avenue ? Desirable residences or not !

Foxhunter Drive, is it acceptable within our city to name a road after a former illegal activity ?  One of the most celebrated sons of our area is John Newton, a former slave captain who

turned his life from evil to beauty and gave us Amazing Grace. Drive into Olney where he was curate of Saint Peter and Saint Church you will find signs saying Welcome to Olney Home of Amazing Grace. You will not find a road anywhere within the parish called Slave Trader Way !

Why is it our two members of parliament think it acceptable to have their offices located on Foxhunter Drive ?  Pardon the pun but is this not politically unacceptable ?

Yes, I am a passionate animal lover. I always have been but now aged seventy-two years

going on seventy-three I have only been a vegetarian for five years. Let me tell you how it happened, how I turned away from munching on a McDonald’s dead cow burger or adorning a slice of murdered pig with a slice of pineapple. I was sitting looking at my beautiful dog Jake and said to myself could I eat him roasted and served with potatoes, peas and Yorkshire pudding. Jake was a dog of love, he filled our home with an abundance of love. When he passed away I was devastated. I was then contacted by the RSPCA and asked if I would adopt Barnaby.

Barnaby is two years old. For his first year of life he was forced into badger baiting. For the second year of his life he was cared for by the RSPCA while a case was prepared against the evil people who had subjected him to horrific cruelty. This is an imprisonable offence. Sadly while foxhunting is illegal it is currently only punishable with a fine.

Prison or fine, foxhunting is illegal. Is it acceptable for a road in the City of Milton Keynes to be named after an illegal activity ?  Is it acceptable for our members of parliament to base their offices within such celebration of illegal activity ?

Rule Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves - Britons never, never, shall be slaves

Britons never shall be slaves but when those words were written it was perfectly acceptable for a Briton to own a slave or two ! We have seen in places like Bristol statues associated with the slave trade torn down and thrown away. Metaphorically perhaps Milton Keynes should tear down Foxhunter Drive ! Perhaps our members of parliament should be those who initiate such action and begin so doing by relocating their offices to somewhere other than a celebration of former criminal activity.

MK Today - Saturday 4th March 2023

On 8^th December last year I tripped over rubbish in Morrissons car park Westcroft sustaining multiple minor injuries. I was admitted to A & E at our wonderful hospital where I received immediate care. Do not believe any media rubbish insinuating waiting times in hospital, such was not my experience ! On Thursday 2^nd March I received my last hospital consultation. THREE MONTHS during which I received weekly physio appointments and non-stop loving care from our beautiful HNS within University Hospital Milton Keynes.

That recent accident left me with a minor disability, my right arm is weak but I am told it will get stronger the more I use it. How fortunate I am that my disability is both minor and temporary. This has been an important lesson. As a society we do not properly accommodate people with disabilities.  I am NOT saying that we should go out of our way to accommodate disabled people, such should be the natural way society lives its life every day.

In my book MY KA’S ADVENTURE IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD I take inspiration in one chapter from my arrogant teenage life working as a management trainee in a giant Birmingham City Centre department store. There two lift operators were disabled, one losing a hand and one a leg in the war. I thought it disrespectful to customers to be confronted by men with bits of their body missing. What a horrible, arrogant young man I was.

Today we have disabled parking bays, we have wheelchair access, disabled toilets and so on. We have support dogs for people with hearing and sight problems. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded way back on 30^th August 1934.

If I had to lose one of my five senses which would I sacrifice ? That is a very hard question to

answer. In my schoolboy years the mayor of the town where I lived was blind, he had lost his sight during the Second World War. He didn’t exactly make a joke of his sight but having honed his remaining four senses to compensate is quoted on one occasion saying: Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t realise you can see !

My great-grandfather lost his hearing in the trenches of World War One caused by the incessant explosions of shells around him. Living in London during the Blitz of the Second World War he never heard the bombs drop but always felt the ground shake from their explosions.

Hearing versus Sight. I would give up sight before hearing.

Losing the use of my right hand, I can type on my laptop with a couple of fingers assisting those of my left hand, it has been so frustrating not being able to hold a pen and be able to write properly. (My handwriting has always been scruffy !)I am thinking back to that lift operator, he could not hold a pen in his right hand as he had no right hand ! I wonder if he learned to write left-handed.

I have complained for years about excess packaging of products we buy from our local supermarkets. I complain that there is a deliberate confusion as to what can and what cannot be recycled. I complain that a chain saw need to be a household tool to open such a huge variety of packages. But what if you do not have the use of a hand with which to hold a chain saw ! Don’t buy a tin of Del Monte pineapples. Such comes in a ring-pull can which the world’s strongest man would have difficulties opening !

Back to toilets. Some disabled toilets have notices explaining that not all disabilities are visible, other are locked demanding any potential user obtain a key from the building’s operator. Two extremes !

Perhaps we should stop using the word disabled and in its place use diffables, diff as in different.

A couple of times a year I take a break in Devon staying in a hotel which goes the extra mile and some more to accommodate disabled people. There are slightly raised bands in the corridors helping people to use their feet to find their way. Brail notices abound. Assistance dogs are welcome, very welcome.

How many places in Milton Keynes can match that ? I can’t think of any but I would love to be wrong. How many places in our City are disabled person friendly ? I can certainly answer that – NOT ENOUGH

As I have been working through the names on our war memorials, composing Milton Keynes Book Of Honour, I have been thinking of those who did not lose their lives but lost a hand or leg while serving King and Country. The area of our City was then a rural community; Coffee Hall was Coffee Hall Farm. Emmerson Farm, Valley Farm today Emmerson Valley. Cities like Birmingham created special jobs for disabled servicemen, what jobs could be created for these persons on farms ? I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and speak with them, invite them to tell me their stories.

Disabilities v Diffabilities perhaps one day society will abandon the first and better respect the second