UNEXPECTED TURN
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Downing Street, London. February.
“Ah, Miss Cadwallader, thank you for coming.”
Lucy Cadwallader hated the grating voice of the man inviting her into his private office. She disliked the man himself almost as much, but years of political manoeuvring had trained her to hide her feelings very well. She plastered on a pleasant smile and happy expression and, at the waved invitation, sat down on what turned out to be a far more uncomfortable chair than its appearance suggested.
“Sir,” she said softly. “How can I help?”
Graham Thorn was a physically small man, but with a large presence and booming voice. His craggy face, open manner, and permanent good humour in public all belied his actions in private. His voice turned silky smooth, something that Lucy had only heard about in the past, and she braced herself for what it might mean.
“Miss Cadwallader. I believe that you, or at least some of your members, are thinking of leaving me. Is this true?”
Lucy thought frantically for a moment. It was true, but how the hell did he know? Only about five people were in the know, and she trusted them absolutely.
“Prime Minister,” she said softly. “As you are well aware, the Green party has been a member of the Earth First movement from the very beginning, and has supported Earth First from its very foundation in Britain. We still believe in the general aims of the Earth First movement. I therefore cannot see how you might come to the conclusion that we or any of my members are about to pull out of the movement. In any case, we have just nine MPs, and you have a majority in Parliament of three hundred. And, since we are all back benchers, it is not as if you would be losing a minister, even a junior one. Our commitment to the Earth First cause is as strong as it ever was. On that you have my word.”
The Prime Minister watched the woman in front of him almost admiringly, though none of that was evident on his face. He knew, absolutely incontrovertibly, that the Green Party were planning on leaving the Earth First grouping. In one sense he didn’t care, but he did admire her bravery for being able to dissemble so easily to his face, when she must know he knew everything. As she had pointed out, he had a massive majority, but it was a hurt he didn’t need as that majority was in fact a lot of small groups, many of whom didn’t believe in half the things other groups believed in. If the Greens pulled out, it was not impossible that others might follow suit, and that could embarrass him, especially if it happened quickly or to any great extent.
“And what exactly is it about the Earth First movement in particular that attracts you?” he asked calmly, but with a glint of ill-humour in his eyes.
Lucy shuddered slightly. “We believe that the Earth must come first. Nature and the wild open spaces of our countryside are vitally important to both the overall health and wellbeing of the planet, but also the people. We believe, as I’m quite sure you know, that energy must be obtained from sustainable means. Coal, oil and nuclear energy must all be abandoned as they are inimical to the planet. We believe that economic growth must have a sustainable element to it, must have green credentials, be nature and Earth-friendly. We are pleased that the aviation taxes have been increased, though we’re concerned that they weren’t increased by as much as was originally claimed. We are also pleased that there are to be no new runways anywhere in the country, and that the planned Thames Estuary project was scrapped before it got off the ground. Road building has been scrapped, which is also a good thing. We are however disappointed that HS2 and HS3 are still going ahead despite repeated promises to scrap them.”
“Ah. High Speed Two,” murmured the Prime Minister. “You’re right. That should have been scrapped. Or rather, it should never have been started. But it was started, even if rather late, and if we stopped it just like that,” he clicked his fingers, “it would cost more than if we carried on. It is probably less than a year from completion, so therefore, as it will be a very useful railway long term, it stays.”
He looked at her coolly. “Now. Since you say you support the Earth First movement, I expect you will at very least discipline those members of your party who are thinking about leaving? Won’t you? I would even suggest that you have them resign their seats.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that, Prime Minister. And in any case, if someone is thinking about leaving, that is their affair, until they say something in public. And resigning their seats is an overdramatic response. Don’t you think?” She smiled sweetly, but inside she was nervous and worried.
The Prime Minister’s smile in return was cruel now. “No Miss Cadwallader. I don’t. You have to keep discipline in your party, just as I have to keep discipline in the government and the country as a whole. As such, I expect you to keep that discipline. You are part of the Earth First Government, you signed the agreement three years ago, now you must stick to it.” His smile turned sickly sweet, “don’t you think?”
Lucy blanched slightly. “And what’s in it for us?” she asked, cross with herself that there was a tremor of fear in her voice.
His smile turned feral. “Your life. Your political life.” He made it sound as if he’d meant ‘political life’ first time, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he meant what he’d actually said. There were rumours ... It was also obvious that the interview was over, so she got up to leave. As she went through the door, the Prime Minister spoke once again.
“You know what I expect Lucy. Please don’t disappoint me.” She shuddered and left quickly, she hated him calling her by her first name.
Graham Thorn turned back to his papers, irritated that he’d had to spend any time at all on that squirming female. He had summoned her, but even so. Looking out of his private office window and through the snow covered trees, he could see horse guards parade and, farther on, St. James park beyond which was The Mall. Just out of sight, off to the left around the corner of the building, was Buckingham Palace. There was little traffic on The Mall: the high price of petrol and diesel due to the shortages after the short but violent nuclear war in the Middle East had reduced private car usage to a fraction of its previous high.
The view, the snow, the street lights, even the lights on the buildings away on The Mall, all produced a beautiful, almost ethereal, view, but Thorn didn’t see it. He was too consumed with anger and hate.
Thorn’s face briefly curled into a snarl as momentary fury passed through him. Until he’d become Prime Minister just weeks earlier in an internal coup, he’d been relatively neutral about the monarchy. But his rising anger with Queen Beatrice at her refusal to publicly endorse his government or his policies was distracting him. “Damn that child,” he growled, conveniently forgetting that Beatrice was close to his own age, with children who would now be in their late teens.
His thoughts turned back to Lucy Cadwallader. For a forty four year old, she was still an incredibly attractive woman, but in reality he despised her both for her politics and her sexuality. She was openly a lesbian, and no one seemed to care anymore. That irritated him almost as much as the fact that she was on friendly terms with the Queen. Hmm. That was a thought. Maybe he should cultivate her as a way of getting to the Queen.
He sat back in his chair and thought about it, but all that happened was that he became more and more irritated and frustrated at the intransigence of the two women.
He shook his head in annoyance, and instead he turned his thoughts to what he’d said to her. He wondered whether she’d known that the threat to her life was real, and not the accident he’d made it appear. He grinned nastily. If it came to it, she wouldn’t be the first person he’d had killed.
With that thought he began to relive the past few months and years. When Donald Prendergast had been forced to resign as the leader of Earth First, then in opposition, Thorn hadn’t thought much about it. He was not, at the time, part of Earth First. Instead he was a supporter, though not a paid up member, of the British National Party. However when just a few weeks later it looked like the pro-confederacy government under George Brown was about to fall, he’d very quickly jumped on the Earth First bandwagon and to his surprise had been elected Member of Parliament for Southend-on-Sea in Essex.
That election had, technically, produced a hung Parliament. Earth First had been the largest individual party, just fourteen seats short of an absolute majority, so it had needed the support of a number of other, smaller, parties to get into government. For three weeks the wrangling had taken place, and Thorn had made himself indispensable to the new Earth First leader, Neil Conway. It was he, Thorn, who had persuaded the BNP contingent of five MPs to actually become official members of Earth First. It was he who had persuaded many of the smaller parties and independents, though as it happened not the Green Party, to join in with an Earth First government. Some of those smaller parties, including the Greens, stayed as independent parties allied to Earth First, but a number of the other independents had given up their independent billing to formally join the newly created Earth First political party.
Pansy
- 19.10.2021
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