liz truss x priti patel: the complete story

12. October 2020

By October, cases continued to rise as a quarter of the UK were in local lockdowns.

"Summer has seen a, a fraying of people's discipline!" Boris lamented to the cabinet, which was scrambling to introduce new measures without restricting freedoms. But with the annual Tory conference on the way, ministers' minds were elsewhere.

"Local lockdowns have been successful so far, so perhaps there's a way we could unify that across the country." Priti said, having been thinking hard about the issue.

"How do you mean?" Boris asked. Priti appeared to think for a minute, as if she hadn't already planned and rehearsed what she would say beforehand.

"We could introduce risk levels to be applied to each area, so those which are higher risk can have additional restrictions to follow. Therefore we could avoid a lockdown and any kind of national panic while still targeting the virus." She explained, as the now attentive group considered.

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the logistics of Priti's idea, until it developed into a fully fledged plan that would be announced after the conference.

***

"How's your speech coming along?" Liz asked Priti as they got lunch that day.

"It's going well I think. I wish I got to do more speeches actually, I'm quite good at it."

"Can I read what you have so far?" Liz asked eagerly, as Priti passed her her phone. 

"It's not too dramatic, is it?" She asked, suddenly self conscious.

"I mean, it's dramatic, yes, but it strikes just the right tone. It's really good, I think they'll like it."

*

This year's conference was virtual, and Priti stood before cameras in an otherwise empty room.

"Those defending the broken system - the traffickers, the do-gooders, the lefty lawyers, the Labour Party, are defending the indefensible."

Her eyes glistened with hypocrisy as she spoke fiercely, pinning the problems her party caused on the exact people who fought to fix them, spurred on by the praise she knew she'd receive. The conservatives were belligerent when it came to any kind of culture wars, and Liz watched with proud admiration as Priti's delivery brought the hateful words to life.

***

"I can't believe we're about to spend a whole meeting discussing a Labour motion. Surely we have better things to do." Priti said bitterly as her and Liz entered that week's cabinet meeting.

"They know exactly what they're doing, putting us in this position." Liz replied.

The cabinet had met to discuss the vote on extending free school meals over the holidays, which would prevent 1.4 million children from starving over Christmas. Of course, it was a ridiculous idea.

"This is a load of socialist toss!" Boris shouted, the comforting return to classism reinvigorating him after a tough few months.

"And it's not economically viable either." Rishi added, as if saying it aloud made it true. "Parents need to take some responsibility, and if the state starts taking away basic responsibilities like feeding their children then they'll become dependent."

"But the public supports this!" Priti urged. "And I think we need good press more than ever right now."

"Since when did you care about public support?" Johnny Mercer said quietly, his jocular tone doing little to hide the strong resentment he'd developed for the woman. Liz shot him a defensive look - she would remember this.