Old times on the Ml
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There can hardly have been two more dissimilar Ministers of Transport than the quiet Harold (now Lord) Watkinson, who ceremonially inaugurated work on the M1 on March 24, 1958, and the rumbustious Ernest (now Lord) Marples, his successor, who -unveiled" it on November 2, 1959.
The most controversial Minister of Transport since Samuel Hore-Belisha, who, in the midthirties gave his name to pedestrian-crossing beacons and introduced the driving test, Ernie certainly had style. This was recalled by the Department of Transport on the twentieth birthday of Ml.
At precisely 10am on November 2, 1959, he stood like Horatius on the bridge at Slip End, near the junction to A6 for Luton and Harpenden, and, using a police-car radio telephone, ordered the simultaneous removal of barriers at 13 access points between St Albans and Dunchurch. "Rockets were fired and waiting motorists and lorry drivers were waved on to the broad new highway by smiling police officers,the department reminisced.
I had completely forgotten that 20 years ago even policemen smiled.