God's Country

Part Fifty-One

'It does not require great learning to be a Christian and be convinced of the truth of the Bible. It requires only an honest heart and a willingness to obey God.'

Albert Barnes

"Cold to be walking out here," Philip Henderson suggested, stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets and shouting a bit against the wind, as they started to cross the bridge towards the Cathedral. Beneath them, the broad River Meade flowed deep and fast, swollen by the heavy December rain. Charles Buckingham grinned and turned back to face him, holding his arms out wide.

"Can't be overheard out here," Charles laughed, but the truth was he liked the old river. He liked the history of it, the things it had seen and heard, the sense of time flowing past and people coming and going over and around it, like an endless wave. It was a special place for him, the scene of his own transformation, and he liked to be there.

"One to one? I can think of better places."

"So can I, but nowhere where we can talk without someone else fussing over us."

"Good point...so what do we need to talk about?" Henderson asked, managing a weak smile but looking exhausted, as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"I am sure you know Philip...at least as much as me."

"Come on Charles...that rather depends on what you know?" But Henderson grinned and they both knew. He would not have agreed to come otherwise. He did, after all, still have other things to do. Visiting his daughter was a painful chore he could have left to his wife.

"Our little coalition looks like it will meet a premature end, which pains me because I think it has worked rather well...but the truth is the old political landscape is, if not actually dead yet, polluted and dying...and it really has to change." Buckingham suggested, watching a duck bobbing against the current, moving ever so slowly. "So I think that we have to change it...you and I...before it is too late."

"Well, you already have...if you intend to fight the next election on a national basis. You will have handed power to Strickland for a decade or more." Henderson suggested, sounding as if he had already accepted his fate. He knew that there was little more he could do.

"Only if the Conservative Party exists...and I think it is really a bit harsh to blame me when it is a rebellion by your own backbenchers which will force you to resign, old chap."

"Of course it will exist..." Henderson began, but then he got the point, the surprise obvious on his face. He had expected Charles to ask something of him, but not that. They were at best reluctant partners, not natural bedfellows. Henderson was not a forgiving man and he would happily have let the likes of Buckingham, men who originally stood against him, rot on the sidelines whilst he rose to power, but they had made their peace for the sake of the country, to provide a stable government. But it was still uneasy, still awkward, and if it was a burgeoning friendship, it still had some way to go.

"No matter what you do, you cannot cut out all of your deadwood...or eliminate all of the factions within your crumbling structure. It is more or less unmanageable...even without all those who are about to throw in their lot with Nigel Farage." Charles pointed out, standing very close to Henderson, as if they were discussing the weather. "In order to claim the centre right, you need a clean sheet of paper and some new angles. There is too much baggage in the old party Philip. The ghosts of Winston and Margaret, the shadows cast by the old class divide. We need to unite under a new flag."

"Your flag?"

"Why not?" Buckingham asked with a shrug of his shoulders. "It is as good as any other and it is untainted by the past?"