God's Country

Part Forty-Two

'The Bible is replete with commands to persevere, especially in the face of injustice.'

Joni Eareckson Tada

"Gentlemen...please," Charles Buckingham stopped on the pavement outside his hotel for the night, surrounded by reporters desperate for a quote. He had made a pretence of trying to walk on, but he was fighting against the tide. He had to say something of course. He was just investing in the theatre of the moment for the sake of the evening news reports. "Really, I don't want to make political capital out of this...Reynolds has a wife and three children...my thoughts are with them this morning."

"Can he carry on and fight the election?"

"Surely that is a question for Mr Reynolds and Mr Henderson...all I will say is that I expect all of my colleagues to uphold the highest standards of public life. That is why I met and interviewed all of them before approving their candidacy. That is why we could not put many more candidates up for this snap election, because I would not sponsor them if I had not had time to vet them first. No one can ever be totally sure of course, but any member of the CDP would resign immediately or be sacked by me within hours after revelations like this. I really do not expect all politicians to be saints...after all, we all make mistakes...but this is not only illegal but clearly a gross error of judgement...and we all expect our politicians to show good judgement all of the time."

"Glad you didn't make any political capital out of that one," Forbes laughed out loud as Buckingham settled beside him in the back of the car.

"I'm not sure I needed to...he's handed us the seat on a plate." Charles grinned, pulling the seatbelt across himself as the car started to move off. "Philip Henderson is not going to be a happy man this morning."

"He still won't accept your kind offer."

"Of course not...it would be political suicide at this stage."

"But he would look to us as coalition partners if the numbers fall our way."

"I still don't see that as likely Alistair, but yes, in those circumstances, we would be a better fit than the Liberals. How is the broadcast looking?"

"I think it's good...if you approve it this morning it airs Monday evening. I want you to do your closing address as late as possible, so that you can be as current as possible. This last week is going to get dirty, all three parties are going to throw everything they have at us, and we need to set the backdrop to it all. We got some brilliant footage from Michael's brand new churches...the Pastor up in Birmingham was particularly powerful, and I think we will take a lot of the wind out of their sails. But we will be flat out from now until the polling stations shut...and I do mean flat out."

"Elections are always the same...you can never stop until the polls close for fear of missing that one crucial vote," Buckingham laughed, settled back in his seat. He was tired, but he was loving every minute. He was back where he belonged and despite some unexpressed concerns about the information leaked to the press about his opponent, he knew what it all meant. He really could be back in the House. His chances had just gone from fair to good, and he could not afford to waste a second.

'The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and the oppressed.'

Thomas Huxley

Brogan Hardcastle woke late, and watched the Reynolds thing unfold, bleary eyed after following Neil Hooks up another dead end the night before. She made toast and coffee and pottered around her flat, throwing a load of washing into the machine and opening a pile of post she had not touched for days. She had tried to do as Gavin Williams advised and forget about Paul Craig and her stepfather. She had got a total of ten good column inches into The Times so far. Her cuttings book looked better, and she wondered if she might even be able to get a proper job in the New Year. Pushing her fingers through her messy hair, she carried the laundry basket back into the spare bedroom, the one where she stored all the junk and just dropped it on the floor. She could not be bothered to tidy up; she would worry about that after the election, when things got back to some sort of normality. She was just turning to leave the room, heading for the shower, when she noticed the old briefcase hidden behind the door. She had not noticed it when she was searching through her stepfather's stuff. She did not think that she had ever looked inside. He had left lots of stuff in the flat, and she had no idea what half of it was.