Milton Keynes is possibly the single most unpleasant city in the world. I wouldn't really say it was in the Midlands - more the south-east. However, there are the following:

You are an hour from the beautiful university city of Oxford. You are also an hour from the beautiful university city of Cambridge. Both of these can be done by bus. You are ~an hour by train from London if you can get to the railway station. You are 10 minutes from Bletchley Park where the allies broke the German cyphers in WWII. In 2 hours you could be in Nottingham by car. All potentially very nice days out.