112: The candidate

‘Your mail, comrade.’ So said Charlie, shoving her silver salver closer than ever to my chin.

‘Ah! Another communication from the worker’s party I take it?’

‘According to the advertising on the back. One day they’ll tumble to you.’

‘Not if this is the goods news I’m hoping for.’ And after a second or two’s perusal; ‘Yes! I feel a song coming on: “Everything’s coming up roses, for me and my gal.” What?’

‘We’ve only just seen the back of Buffy!’

‘And a good job too, his advice to members of the club to quit trying to noble the opposition from within was all very well for the faint hearted, but we are made of sterner stuff.’

‘You’re not seriously suggesting Rory can save his seat?’

‘Oh no. And before you say it, this is actually us staying out of politics. We are moving on, making friends with the likely winner of the next parliamentary election, getting her and her supporters on board the first train on platform one!’

‘Her?’

‘Indeed, the new candidate is a former regional organiser in the NHS section of one of our nation’s largest trade unions. She, goes by the name, Brenda Radnor; and guess where she lives, I’ll give you a clue, a certain picturesque village one stop short of Morestead!’

‘But surely, she’d be much more likely to be leading the opposition to you!’

‘But she, let me tell you is old school, made her reputation negotiating deals for her aspiring members, she like I, thinks in terms of capital and labour. And you can’t have one without the other.’

‘Charlie! Oh, there you are. Fetch the two-seater, Prudence is demanding a crash meeting.’

‘Has she heard?’

‘Who can say.’

‘May I remind you, sir, for the umpteenth time, Prudence doesn’t like me.’

‘Yes, I appreciate that, but I need you there as a restraining influence. If she comes over all, dying duck in a thunderstorm again, I may have no alternative but to put the boot in!’

‘Tony, what am I to do? Where’s Charlotte?’

‘Behind the bar fixing drinks. Do about what?’

‘Nobody else does their own drinks.’

‘Force of habit, the staff don’t mind, they pick up tips on best practice. Your problem?’

‘The party are revolting.’

‘So, I always imagined.’

‘Rory only just scrapped re-selection, Brexiteers wanted him to step down, due to disloyalty to Buffy.’

‘How did he survive?’

‘Said he was the sitting MP who’d won two elections, they couldn’t force it, something in the rulebook.’

‘That’s happening in quite a few seats I understand, the voters may agree.’

‘Everyone thinks Rory’s a loser now.’

‘He almost certainly will be if he says Buffy was right, but a wrong’un. How you imagine I can help you; I don’t know. Twice my advice was correct, and you’ve ignored it.’

‘But you said he’d lose, that’s why Rory went on the attack.’

‘I said he should stay loyal to Buffy, be the game and gallant loser, fight another day. If the party go down to a crushing defeat, the proportion of Brexiteers amongst the remaining dregs may actually increase, Buffy could well be back.’

‘What!’

‘Coffee all.’ Said Charlie as she took her seat.

‘We’re finished, it’s the end. You must have a fix, Tony!’

‘My loyalty is to the Trust, and their top priority is having cordial relations with whoever our member of parliament is. I’ve been swallowing my pride in maintaining relations with Buffy as it is.’

‘Do you want the opposition to win? This new woman is as left-wing as that over-sized, over-priced ice cream tub we faced last time.’

‘Old Left, not awoken. Trade unionist.’

‘How do you know?’

‘As I said, cordial relations.’

We fell into a long silence. ‘I believe in Rory, sometimes I think I’m the only one.’

‘Well...’ Charlie grabbed my knee, so I left the quip unspoken.

‘You’ve always been supportive Tony, why do you desert me now?’

‘Just because I’ve always cared for you, it doesn’t mean I always have an answer.’

‘Oh, really! Flirting with me in front of your girlfriend, whatever next.’ At which point she stood up, and promptly departed.

And when she’d gone, I thought aloud; ‘Why does she always remind me of Aunt Elisabeth?’

I few days later I left both Charlie and the car at home, and legged it into town to the social club for the meet and greet with the new opposition candidate. On the way I told myself, be boring, no jokes, just middle-class worthiness. She turned out to be quite a speech maker, and sharp with it too when it came to questions. Rory was going to be massacred. When it came time to mingle, I took my chance; ‘Congratulations! I’m Tony Arlington.’

‘Arlington, as in the Arlington Trust?’

‘Well yes, but I'm just one of seven trustees these days.’

‘You’re here as a member of the party?’

‘Indeed. I joined about eight years ago.’

‘But you’re one of the largest landowners and property developers in the county!’

‘Well not personally, I confess to owning a four-bed detached house and a two-seater car. But no, when my aunt died in the pandemic, I found myself the last beneficiary of a family trust that was set-up back in the mists of time to support the widows, orphans and unmarried daughters of a large extended family. Things had to change. It’s now been reconstituted as a Green charitable trust.’

‘But you own Crawford Park, turned it into a country club!’

‘The trust owns a forty per cent share in the Park company. The club just rents some of the rooms in the house, for most days of the year. But they are separate from the developing conference facility, the podcast studio and the expanding health spa.’

‘I see.’

‘The farms are being as organic as the government will let them be at the moment, and the town properties have a rolling programme of restoration, though I hear in the Press that we are being criticised for monopolising the supply of stonemasons in the south west.’

‘You’re involved in this new railway project; I saw the exhibition when it was at our village community hall.’

‘Excellent. We are hoping to end-up with about fifteen per cent of the eventual company that will own and run the line. But obviously there will be two operators, the heritage services will be complemented by new speedier trains for commuters.’

‘You don’t have the station properties yet!’

‘No, but I understand they’ve been made an offer, at the top of the market, whenever that was, two thousand and nineteen I think.’

‘Really, I didn’t know that.’

‘Still, you must be keen to see jobs coming to the village, and throughout the constituency come to that, assuming you’re successful. I’m sure you will be. By the way, if I can be any help with campaigning, media and such like, here's my card. The thing is, perhaps I shouldn’t say, but after my parents died when I was still a child, my aunts drew on the old family trust to give me quite a posh education, Flotterton was admittedly a couple of forms below me, but I have known him off and on, all my adult life. Anyway, I mustn’t monopolise your company, I’m sure there must be others you should be talking to...’