Protestations

​Many of our local WI members attended a meeting called to explain about the proposed new Express Roadway planned to be built very close to the town. It was a public meeting called by the protest group: there was no one there from the Highways people to put their case and the local press wasn’t present either. However, we were shown excellent diagrams and maps and lots of statistics were given about traffic flow and damage to the environment. There is a need for improvement of the road leading into Milton Keynes past Thrift Farm and an extension to the Tingewick bypass but the case for a brand new major route was not proven. The frightening thing is that for every mile of developed road you have hundreds of new houses alongside and more cars and lorries using it. We want more buses to reduce the amount of cars with one person in. Have you heard that somewhere before?
The WI book Group has been reading “I am Malala” which is the autobiography of the young girl shot by the Taliban a couple of years ago. We learned a lot about the life of the women and girls who are eager for education but have to be so brave to just attend school every day. The journalist Christina Lamb, who helped Malala write, came and talked to the BFWI some time ago either at a Council Meeting or at a Literary Lunch. Malala’s descriptions of English life and of Birmingham where she now lives with her family showed how much she appreciated the freedom to move around without a male escort all the time and to choose how she dressed---but she missed the flat roofs where the children could play cricket! We compared her fighting technique with the young Swedish Greta who is in all the media at the moment.
There is a deal of banner-waving going on at the moment and I fear that our little town of Winslow may have to start on some form of protest soon. Our community library is under threat of demolition: we are being offered a portacabin as a “temporary” substitute until a proper centre is built. As there are not even plans submitted for this yet and knowing the speed of decision-making we fear that this could be a stealthy way of being closed down altogether. I am sure I don’t need to remind you that the preservation of libraries features in one of the WI mandates so perhaps we should be girding up our loins for a good old protest---banners are boring so what about a sit-in or read-in or library hug?
The natives are restive. If members of Parliament can behave disgracefully I am sure the WI members can too. It comes to something when the item on TV which is most tear jerking is the Ten o’clock news! To the barricades!