11 September

ALFRED - SUNDAY.11TH. SEPTEMBER.

I am still worried that I do not know the routine for the day. I suppose that I will get to know in time. But there is a much more relaxed feeling. The day starts at 8.0am, with the cell doors being opened, and we all, or most of us, go down to the ground floor, to pick up toast and tea- making allocation of tea bags, sugar, milk powder, a packet of butter substitute, and some jam. While I am down there, I ask that I may go to the Chapel Service, which is about 10.0.am at about 8.45. the Moslems are called to worship. There are about 10 of them. Then the call comes for the Roman Catholics who seem to be gone only for a short while. Then the other churches are called, and about 15 of us are searched as usual. We go out into the "park", that is how I think of the open space in the centre of the various wings. We troop across the "park" in quite a joyful mood. About seven of us are black, and they are always a happy bunch. There are three Romanians, and the rest of us from Britain. When we arrive at the Chapel, we are searched again, and have to show our ID cards before we go in. The seats are arranged in two semi circles with an Altar standing away from the East wall. On the right hand side there is a lady sitting at the organ. The Minister, in a plum co loured coat, is strumming a guitar. He welcomes us and sings a worship song. Then we have the first hymn, followed by a prayer and a reading, and another hymn. The three Romanians are beside me, and I show which hymn we are on. The Minister then gives his sermon on the great forgiveness of God for us all. Then he says we will have a short Communion Service and, as a Methodist, he welcomes us all to the table. At the Sharing of the Bread and Wine we all, well nearly all, come and stand in a semi circle and receive them. He laid his hand on those who did not wish to receive. And after the final hymn he gives us all a blessing. Then we troop out to the hallway. And surprise, we are offered coffee.
There was one young man from another wing who was disturbed. I do not know, but he seemed to be "high". I met another young man who welcomed me, saying he had seen me on TV. He told me that he should not be here because he had not been to court, and anyway he was not guilty of anything. He also told me his father, who was a Free Church Minister, would like to write to me. Later I did get a letter from him, and I met him when he visited his son. The young man was found not guilty. I only saw him at a later service. I do not remember what we had for brunch, at 11.45 On Sundays there are two times for visits as Sundays is the best day for the visitors who may well have to travel from far away. What is more the prison sends a bus to meet them at Milton Keynes Station. My visiting time was at 2.0pm.
During the time following brunch, a lady Prison Officer and a prisoner came to me and offered a change of clothes and the offer to wash mine. So when I went to the Visiting Hall I was in a washed out purple Track suit, and a bright blue T-shirt.
It was a great visit. Una had written some notes on her hand to remind her what she wanted to say to me. She fetched coffee and choc bars to feed me up. These visits were a pure delight to me. But I think the visitors had a very strict arrival system with many checks and searches. While the prisoners were sitting at their allotted desks, we talked, and many congratulated me on my stand against the council tax. It was lovely to see prisoners' families looking for their man. The little children would run to their dads and give them delighted hugs. Then we were called row by row to leave, taking with us plastic cups, bottles, and choc bar w rappers to be put in the dustbins on the way out. We collected our ID cards, and went out to be searched, and some to be strip searched. I never saw anyone being caught with anything on them that they should not have.
When I got back to the wing, association was still in progress, and I stayed on the ground floor and chatted to some my fellow inmates.
Sunday was the day we made out our canteen lists and handed them in, for what we wanted and can afford, to the office. I remember as well as ordering tobacco and matches, I ordered a pack of playing cards so that I could play Patience to fill in the time. As Pipe smoking was not supposed to go on, I ordered Red Bull. I was told it was the nearest thing to pipe tobacco that we could get. We had to wait until Thursday before our canteen was delivered. Even though I had already run out. Many of the inmates made sure I did not go without. After supper it was bang- up. We watched TV as usual. Of all the days so far, this one was good, even with the low number of staff on duty.



UNA - SEPTEMBER 11TH 2005

I woke at 5.45 am. remembering the sound of the stirring music from the last night of the Proms. I lay still for a while, thinking. These first few days, since Alfred had gone to Prison, had been more than hectic. Life was moving at a fast rate most of the time. I felt as if I was continually hitting tennis balls, thrown to me from the far distance of a tennis court. There was no time to think straight. Writing my diary was rather like making a shopping list. Just jotting down what I did without explaining why because life is going at a furious pace. I was beginning to understand that the demand for news about Alfred in Prison is important to the media and in turn, important to our cause. I am determined to keep supplying the information they need.

At 2p.m I aimed to see Alfred for a 50 minutes visit. This was the incentive to get going.
A bath and a hair wash tied in length with another washing machine programme. The washing was hung in the garage because it was a rainy day, out of sight and almost out of mind. After a muesli and coffee breakfast I set off to buy our Sunday paper, The Mail on Sunday. Alfred always walked to do this but I took the car because I was short of time.

Before checking what the paper had to say I suddenly remembered that I needed to find a yellow sticker memo with the Rural Dean's phone number noted by Joel. I needed it for this afternoon's visit so that Alfred could fill in the appropriate visitor's form. The Rural Dean, Michael Burton, was planning a second effort to visit Alfred next Wednesday calling here first to collect fresh clothes for him. Up till now he had no change of clothing that was his own.
When I eventually found the memo pad I felt a flood of relief and wrote the phone number in a safe place, my diary!

The answerphone had recorded a message from an old friend called Pete. I had met him at a convalescent home in Kent nine years ago. Very occasionally he will call me, usually late at night when he is relaxing. The last time he had phoned was after watching the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, on TV in the summer of 2005 announcing his pre-budget report. I was part of a group selected to travel to Stockport to comment on his speech. Pete was knocked out when he recognised me airing my views: keenly pointing out that since 1993 he had still not kept his promise to do away with Means Testing the elderly in this country. Later that day Pete phoned to say he had seen me on TV. He forecast then that Alfred and I " would one day lead the nation!" I think that this is highly unlikely but we were in the news today.
Pete was clearly unaware of our present state but quickly became interested, finishing up with agreeing to take part in Isitfair 's aim to get M.P.s to present their constituents' Petitions for Council Tax Reform in the House of Commons in October. His M.P. is David Laws and he felt sure that he would give this enterprise his support.

Joel phoned in. He said he was enjoying a buzz from all that was happening at the moment. His friends were 100% behind us and this greatly affected him. He had seen Justin's video of September 7th and judged it to be good but it needed to be longer.

I wrote messages on my hand in biro in an effort to remember items of news for Alfred before setting off for today's Prison visit.
It was while I sitting in the large waiting area that I noticed a family that seemed to be very much in tune with one another. While the Mother sat, her two teenaged sons stood near her, quite relaxed. When they caught each other’s eyes, they smiled easily. This lady told me they came from Stanstead to visit her nineteen year old son. She accepted her situation by seeing that what was happening now would lead to something good in the future which could not happen at all without travelling through the present time first. When good things happened again they would lead directly from this difficult time they were experiencing now. Obviously her reasoning gave her peace of mind.

When I came to sit opposite Alfred he told me he had chosen to go to a Chapel Service instead of phoning me. This triggered off memories of the times when I had to accept second place when Church matters were involved in our lives. But now I could understand that other prisoners would have been disturbed if he had not been seen in Chapel. He was, after all, a clergyman. There was another unspoken reason: he needed that Service too. He also knew that I would be visiting him later that day.
He sat in Prison clothes because he had accepted a kind offer from a Warder to act as a laundress. Perhaps she broke some rules to do this. If so, good for her!
The biro messages on my hand had become smudged but they served their purpose of bringing Alfred news of the outside world.
Visitors were not allowed to bring any item in with them, not even a piece of paper, and no one had spotted my hidden list of reminders.
We drank some coffee before time was up. In circumstances like these it was not surprising that I spilt some on my white trousers. Good-bye to glamour!
There was a marked level of acceptance from the group of visitors as we stood together after the goodbye process, waiting for the Warder on duty to unlock the first set of doors leading to freedom. We stood fairly quietly. I was near the head of the queue. The Warder’s eyes focussed on me as he said clearly, " You were first yesterday." I did not like this attention very much. I suppose he was trained to notice details and he was being friendly.

Home is where the phone calls are! I picked up many messages. Andy, a journalist from a Luton Agency, phoned for an update. Later I was accused of being the source of leaking the news that Sylvia Hardy was due to visit Alfred on September 20th. This was correct. I seized every opportunity to highlight our cause.

Never before had I eaten Sunday dinner alone. I made the effort even though it was not strictly necessary and felt better for it.
When I spoke to Jake later I told him that Grandad had bought a packet of cards from the Prison shop so that he could play Patience. This was a game Jake had learned from him so I hoped it might help him to know how his Grandad was spending some of his time.

Christine phoned promptly at 5.30 p.m. for me to dictate my half of our article for the Church of England Newspaper. This took us an hour. The paper comes out on Wednesday. Mental note made to ask for a copy and for another the following week when there might be some reaction in the Letters page. The article is headed: "Why Prison?"(Christine’s effort) and " A Way Out " (my effort).

Finally, time to scan the Mail on Sunday. In it I find an amazing article by Peter Hitchens. The headline jumps out " Jailed - to feed Labour's vultures." He sets Alfred's experience in an historical context quoting John Hampden and the start of the American Civil War, moving to the present time when Council Tax might lead to similar happenings. He ends with a paragraph, " Like Soviet Russia in its final years, this country is on the brink of a series of catastrophes........."
A friend named Susan came to this conclusion some time ago. She would appreciate this writer.