God's Country

Part Sixty-Seven

'Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.'

Deuteronomy 31:6

"Cartwright will develop an effective opposition in time." Alistair Forbes suggested, as the senior Reformists gathered for their usual Monday morning briefing in the Prime Minister's office. "But he will also take his time. He won't want to show his hand five years before an election, because the voters will forget all about it long before then...so he will build and plan and wait for his chance."

"Do we have any information about how many Labour MP's are going to follow him at this stage?" Peter Munroe asked as he poured strong coffee for himself, Harry Trevor and Kieran Radcliffe.

"No, for the same reasons. They will wait and see what Strickland does, what the unions say and how Ben Cartwright is received but my best bet is that Cartwright will get a great press...he is by far the most competent man in their ranks." Forbes continued as he reached over to grab a digestive biscuit. "But the unions pay for a lot of MP's so they will not let their men just walk away."

"I think defections will be relatively few and far between to start with...carefully selected to give them profile...I agree with Alistair, Ben has time on his side and the unions will fight for their right to control things." Charles Buckingham commented, looking up from his notes with a shrug. "There is no reason to rush and the infighting amongst his old colleagues is just playing into his newly clean hands. Ben Cartwright has a front bench without any awkward characters chipping away at him from behind, so he can grab headlines with no backlash and relatively few people...it is rather what we expected to do back in the summer but without the seats in the House to give us credibility."

"He will need funding." Quentin Robinson-Smythe pointed out, rocking back in his chair in his usual casual, offhand manner.

"We all know how hard it is to organise in the background without an existing party machine." David Harrington sighed as they all took their seats. "Without funding that would be impossible."

"He must have some funding in place." Forbes said adamantly.

"But we really can't worry too much about Ben Cartwright now, can we?" Buckingham decided, looking around the room for any dissenters. "In fact, I want a strong opposition...I want our arguments tested...it is hard to sound reasonable when no one is coming up with any alternatives."

"The important thing is that we continue to make progress." Michael Winstanley insisted firmly, opening his file. "We need people to feel God's hand on their shoulders as soon as possible...more schools, more boundaries...people need to be able to see the difference we are making to their lives before Cartwright gets off his backside."

Charles Buckingham smiled at the Pastor's comments. Winstanley was still impatient for progress, despite the unbelievable turn of events. Naturally so, as his faith was genuine. But Charles preferred not to run before he could walk, and he wanted the structure in place before they started to go too far. Quite apart from the fact that the old political order was crumbling around them, the Church of England was following suit, and they were busy enough picking up the pieces. Legislation would be passed every week, but the major programs would take time to gain momentum. Having said that, the test projects were almost ready to start, or indeed grow, as work had been started after the previous election, so they were ahead of the game. It was so tempting to rush into more of the same.

Alistair Forbes sat back and listened as the discussion ebbed and flowed around him. He had ridden the rollercoaster in a matter of months, his CV building move for a higher salary paying unexpectedly fast dividends. He found himself in a position of real power and influence in a government with an unprecedented majority at a relatively young age. It was tempting to relax and enjoy his success, but that was not his way. It all seemed too easy and he was still expecting some sort of backlash from somewhere. He made a note to check on security in a number of areas.