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WHEN man first discovered fire, I bet the townsfolk of High Wycombe ran away screaming that it would burn their homes down and should be banned.

I have no doubt there were letters of outrage to the caveman version of the Bucks Free Press saying the flames should be banned because they were likely to be carcinogenic.

It's probable there were protests when the railway first came to town. Wycombe residents must have complained it would destroy the stagecoach trade and that it was too dangerous and expensive to be viable.

When penicillin was first discovered, I expect there was a demonstration here on behalf of the poor doctors who made their money out of blood-sucking leeches, and fears were expressed that saving too many lives would put too much pressure on the health service.

My point is that High Wycombe has always had a bit of a small-town mentality, even though it no longer is a small town.

People don't really like progress or anything modern and new. And that's why there have been so many gripes about the new Eden centre.

It doesn't matter that the place is teeming with excited shoppers and doing great business; I still overheard people at cash tills complaining it wasn't as good as they expected.

Why? What do they expect? To be sent on space missions to the moon and back in the company of David Beckham and Jennifer Lopez?

And even if they did get that, they'd still moan the trip to outer space was too expensive, and that it was better in the old days when the High Street had one shop and people could leave their doors open without fear of having their silver nicked and young boys didn't wear their hats back to front and spoke nicely to policemen and when a pound of mincemeat cost one shilling, and when everybody ironed their shirts and washed their front doorstep and there were no cars cluttering up the road and when parking was free and even the workhouses were clean and

7:28pm Friday 21st March 2008

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