19 September

ALFRED - MONDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER

It was announced by a prison officer that there would be no evening " association". When asked why this was so, we learn that there is a shortage of staff. So what is going on?
H.M.P. Woodhill, we are often told, is full, like all the other prisons. On our Wing, sometimes, there are several officers about. And at other times there are the odd two or three. When I was on H5 Wing the number of prisoners slowly dwindled down until Friday. While we were banged-up before supper, a large number of new prisoners were admitted, as many as there was room for. So at weekends the prison was full, and also the officers want the weekend off. There is something wrong because it is at weekends that the staff should be at their strongest, not at their weakest. Mind you, I do have sympathy for the staff as well. New prison officers. After their initial training, come to learn on the job. We had one the other night. He was very happy to become a prison officer. He was unmarried. While in training, he said he lived in a hotel, given good food and paid quite well. He looked forward to being posted to any prison in the land when he had finished his training. We also have an officer who actually moved to Woodhill before it opened, and he is still here. His home was built to house officers just across the road.

It was an undistinguished morning, and I cannot remember whether we had exercise or not. But I enjoyed exercise, walking round the yard fairly fast and talking to other inmates, or having a sit in the sun with our backs to the wire fence. Across the yard, just above the 30 foot high fence, were wires stretched to stop a rescue by air, apparently.

As I was entering the Visiting Block, the prison officer said "Hallo!" We talked for a moment until I had to move to the Waiting Room, when he said quietly, "My dad sends his best wishes."
Today I am being visited by Derek. He came to live in one of my last Parishes when his family was breaking up. He was either in his fifties or early sixties. He did not come to Church often. After Choir Practices on Thursdays I would go to our local pub with the men in the Choir. Derek would often be there and was quite willing to talk. I think he was an industrial chemist with very good connections in the industry. His present preoccupation was a fuel for the motor industry made from local crops. He was disappointed with the response from the motor industry, oil companies and the government. They all accepted that such a fuel would be as good as that being used. But it was being considered and had been in the news as an alternative to petrol. Even an interest was shown by the motor racing community. But they were backed by petrol firms, so if it was to be considered it would be in the long term.
Derek accepted the suggestion to come and join the Choir as he had a good voice, and in fact he is still a member of the Choir. He used to come to a mid-week Holy Communion Service. It was mostly one or two at the Service but with Derek there, it made three. But there were occasions when there was only him and me. My successor in these Parishes still has these mid-week Services in turn around the four Parishes, now increased to five, and Derek is often an attendee.
It was a great pleasure to talk with him, about his interests, and his family and friends. The fifty minutes flew by. And I very much appreciated his visit. The most outstanding of his comments was that the security of Woodhill was tighter than that at a nuclear installation!

I was having a cup of tea with Dev and a young man from the Indian subcontinent, who knew Towcester. His friend worked at the Bekash Restaurant. Both were very generous with " ticklers " when I was short of tobacco. Yesterday Joel had told me that he had sent several packets of my pipe tobacco, which I was denied.
I was getting anxious about my clothes that Una had sent via the Rural Dean, who had handed them in at Reception a week ago but I had not been allowed to collect them. I had been asking at the Wing Office when I would be allowed to collect them. They said they would ask. It was the Reception staff who had to make the movement order and organise the escort there and back.




UNA - SEPTEMBER 19TH 2005

Today Derek Lowe was visiting Alfred. His address beginning with" Quinbury End" conjures up a truly rural setting. I do not know him at all but I understood that he came regularly to mid-week services at Blakesley and enjoyed singing in the Choir there. He and Alfred talked a great deal together.

In between two morning piano lessons that went well, a journalist from Radio Northampton interviewed me at home. He posed the idea of Alfred being tagged as an alternative to Prison. This was not an option according to the Council Tax law and if it had been would not have attracted the vast amount of attention Alfred was getting and which was being used to bring about reform. If no reform was needed I suppose tagging would cost the tax payer less.

While the washing machine worked I dealt with more phone calls, incoming and outgoing.
Christine checked to see if all was well. We talked about Sylvia Hardy's long journey tomorrow. This spurred me on to contact Wayne, the reporter for the Chronicle & Echo in Northampton, Central TV and Radio Northampton to make sure they were primed for Sylvia Hardy's visit tomorrow at Wood hill Prison.
John Burnett phoned soon afterwards making arrangements to collect placards, stored in our garage, for the supporters he's gathered together for tomorrow's occasion. He was confident that there would be quite a crowd which was very good news. The two people who had stood out fearlessly in their campaign for Council Tax Reform were going to meet each other tomorrow, one serving his Sentence and the other about to serve hers.

I was glad to have Joel about this morning. He decided to cook our lunch before driving down to London. It is always a treat to have a meal cooked and his help gave me more time to tackle the phone calls and post.

Derek Fisher, the Bishop of Peterborough's Administrator and Press Officer had written to me to say he had issued a statement to " those journalists who had asked for one to the effect that while we (the diocese) could not condone law breaking of any kind, the campaign highlighted a serious problem faced by many people on low fixed incomes."
If he had thought to discuss with us why we chose to break the law he might have appreciated the whole of our story and not just part of it. He might have even reached the understanding that the council tax system was extremely unfair for everyone and not just those on low fixed income, although they suffered the most. If he had been keen to understand our story he could have made a more informed statement, instead of taking the moral highground, typical of those who are embarrassed by their naughty children.
Other more experienced people were expressing their views strongly about this matter and thoroughly understood why Alfred had gone the way he had.
Another difficulty Derek Fisher has is that he and all Church of England Clergy do not pay Council Tax personally. A system is in place which does this for them. We had no experience of paying Council Tax until retirement, when Alfred and I came to realise the steep increases that were greater than increases in State Pensions. That was the start of our journey.
I was fortunate when I phoned this busy man, to tell him all this before he went into a meeting. I thanked him for offering to shield me from Press attention and explained that we welcomed it even though we were amateurs at dealing with it.
Before the conversation ended I spoke about the lack of pastoral care from the two Bishops in the Diocese who could communicate rules but not support. Again it seemed that they were reluctant to make contact to help them understand fully what we were about.
Douglas Feaver, a past Bishop of Peterborough, kept a close eye on all his Parish Priests and their families. He wrote twice to my daughter when she needed hospital care in her young years, so that she found his letters waiting for her in the ward. He did this quietly without drawing any attention to himself. It was between him and Anne. This was in the days of less official paperwork, just to soften my harsh thoughts about the present regime.

At the end of the day Derek Lowe phoned to chat about his visit. Alfred was fine. The chocolates Derek had taken to Alfred were accepted by two lucky Warders " who had been particularly helpful."
On a serious note he felt that what was taking place with Alfred's action was close to fulfilling a role of Destiny. Something to think about.
Such thoughts carrying this kind of strong support often appeared in the letters and cards we received. Among these was the prayer of St. Teresa, sent by Derek that reminds us of how we should act:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which must look out Christ's compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless men now. "