Your country needs you

Your country needs you

A Chapter by The Anarchy State



This was the story of a lifetime, the defining moment of her career, but all Ariana could think of was the baby wriggling inside her. He wasn’t the only one squirming, all those present were fidgeting, but he was the most innocent to be affected. What world would he be born into in less than 6 weeks?

Ariana knew a significant announcement was coming, but wasn’t prepared for something of this magnitude. The Government hadn't been over-egging their problems, they'd been downplaying a far more dire situation. Ariana felt her throbbing temples. Pounding headaches had been by far the worst symptom of her pregnancy, but today the pain was almost incapacitating. She resisted taking tablets though, for fear of damaging her unborn Son.

“Through adversity, we will emerge triumphant!” Vincent Knight, standing a few feet away in-front of a long line of Police Officers, continued glossing over the disastrous decision his Government had taken. The press listened quietly, their initial outcry having waned. Ariana suspected everyone felt as she did: shell-shocked.

Vincent Knight glanced at the papers in his hand as he took one of his famous pauses; he liked to have everyone’s full attention when he spoke. He needn’t have worried about that today, this was probably the most watched live broadcast in television history. He didn’t look prepared for such scrutiny however, his shirt stuffed down his trousers in a big clump on one side and hanging out over his pot belly on the other. His graying wavy hair was unusually messy and he had a 5 o’clock shadow on his double chin. His words were attempting to provide reassurance, but his aura was having the opposite effect.

He continued, “The Act has been unanimously agreed by all parties in a closed session of Parliament and received Royal Ascent a few short minutes ago.” My God, the deed was done and there really was no turning back. “How have we reached this point, you may ask?” Did he say ‘may’ ask? This was the answer the whole country was waiting for! “As everyone is well aware, there has been a proliferation of frivolous lawsuits since Ketan Malhotra won his preposterous case. The precedent set in that point of law left the entire legal framework exposed and the Government defenseless to the ensuing onslaught of claims for outrageous civil rights violations. What you don’t know is the financial ramifications of the inordinate payouts we have been ordered to disburse. The national debt has reached watershed, with all lines of credit exhausted. If the situation had been allowed to persist, the UK would have been declared bankrupt in less than a month. So, with the scales of justice tipping to the point of legal fracture, the only recourse was for us to deconstruct the framework and re-build it again from the ground up.”

Acid rose into Ariana’s mouth and her pulse raced. She wasn’t sure if this was the result of her pregnancy, terror of the impending impact or anger at what she was hearing. They’d been strictly told no questions were permitted until the end, but she couldn’t help herself from commenting. “Deconstruct implies a meticulous method in the process. But you haven’t carefully dismantled the broken parts of the system, you’ve demolished the lot with a wrecking ball.”

Had she just demolished her career with a wrecking ball? The Prime Minister glared at her, his intense blue eyes simmering. “Make no mistake, this was a last-ditch effort to avoid a catastrophe.”

As Vincent Knight looked back down at his speech to re-position himself, Ariana felt a nudge in her ribs. The man standing next to her did some strange signaling with his head, which she construed as a prompt to follow-up her question. She then noticed that all her peers on the front-line had focused their attention on her and the cameras panned to bring her into shot. She’d spent years quietly developing her reputation with no particular wish for the limelight, but she had seemingly found it with that one remark. She didn’t particularly want to lead this charge, but for whatever reason the other correspondents were reluctant to speak and she had inadvertently become their champion. Grasping the nettle, she asked, “Avoid a catastrophe? What do you call this?”



Vincent Knight beamed a smile, presumably concealing a scowl. “Trust us to reconstruct the legal framework of this country and imbue it with an element of commonsense that was sorely lacking previously.”

“Commonsense? I’m not sure that is a word the nation associates with your administration right now.”

“That is an unfair comment. If you had seen the evidence, you would be applauding me for having the courage to take this action.”

“Will you be presenting this evidence?”

“I’m sorry, can you please remind me, did I finish my speech? Have we entered the Q&A? Or didn’t you get the message that there was to be no interrupting?”

“You removed all the rules, remember? You can’t pick and choose when they apply. If they’re gone, they’re gone.”

“I won’t stand for this, I want some decorum!” Vincent Knight stamped his foot.

Was he having a little paddy? Ariana was prepared for tantrums in her future, from her unborn baby not the Prime Minister. “I’d like to know…” Ariana’s words trailed off as Vincent Knight slapped his own neck. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I missed.”

“Missed what?”

“That infuriating fly.” Vincent Knight looked up and around, with his hand ready to swat again. “All I can hear is that irritating buzz.”

Ariana looked over her shoulder and down the circular camera lens from behind which her husband’s tight curly black mop poked out. He side-stepped into view and screwed up his face, empathising with her confusion. Turning back to Vincent Knight, she said, “I can’t hear a fly.”

“There it is again.”

“Are you talking about me?”

Vincent Knight held out his hands with the palms facing up, as if to say, ‘yes.’ He was known for his ready wit, but the timing was completely inappropriate. It seemed Ariana wasn't the only one unimpressed with his behaviour as her Son began kicking. She rest her hand on her tummy to comfort him, or comfort herself.

“Can I finish my speech now? Can I?”

“I just want to know-”

“No, I obviously can’t!” Vincent Knight threw the three pages he’d been reading from into the air. “Obviously your questions are more important than the carefully prepared speech I’d written to fully explain the predicament we find ourselves in.”

“Do you have any comment on the Chancellor's actions earlier today?” asked Ariana, ignoring his sarcasm.

Vincent Knight put his head in his hands and laughed manically.

“Are you enjoying this?” asked Ariana in disbelief at the antics of the man who had been entrusted to run the country.

“I’m having a riot, how about you?”

“I think you want to choose your words more carefully. You’re ‘having a riot,’ and this comes shortly after you said it’s time to ‘embrace lawless Britain,’ which itself followed Christine Spencer-Parker’s term, ‘The Anarchy State.’ Do you really want to encourage disorder?”

“You’re twisting my words, I didn’t mean go wild! I meant the UK must have no laws. It must be law-less. Less laws.”

“But there are no laws, are there?”

“No there f*****g well isn’t! BECAUSE PEOPLE KEEP SUING US BASED ON THEM!” His eyes bulged from their sockets.



Ariana was scared before, but now she was downright petrified. For this man to be making life-changing decisions on behalf of 60 million people was unthinkable.

A wave of nausea overcame Ariana. She covered her mouth with her hand and took deep breaths in an attempt to keep the salmon she’d eaten for lunch in her stomach. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” she said through her fingers.

“Me?”

“Yes, you. I think your actions, your speech and your answers are just plain irresponsible.”

“I’ll tell you what’s irresponsible. Irresponsible is suing your own country for something you know damn well is unconscionable. People sought to capitalise on a broken system and take their turn to fill their boots. Well, the gravy train is derailed and now we all have to live with the consequences.”

Even Ariana was surprised that Vincent Knight answered her questions with such candor. He seemed to have no inhibitions and displayed a total lack of control over what he was saying, the words spurting out without delay. Had he been drinking? It certainly felt like she had been. The Prime Minister, the Police, Parliament, the media, everything, it all began shaking. Ariana felt her body sway and she reached out to grip the arm of the man by her side to prevent herself from falling.

“Look, it was either this or declare the country bankrupt. What would you prefer?” asked Vincent Knight, who had quickly regained his composure.

“It sounds like the same outcome to me. Pandemonium,” said Ariana. Her chest tightened and breathing suddenly became an effort.

“One scenario leaves us in charge of that pandemonium.”

“Does it? I think you're underestimating the impact-”

“I am not underestimating the impact of legalising crime!” blasted Vincent Knight, his calm veneer slipping again. “Because that's what it amounts to. We are out of options! The lawyers, the courts, the EU, the opportunist plaintiffs, they’ve all contributed to a catastrophic failure of our legal system. We have no choice but to scrap the lot and start again.”

Crime is legalised. The thought swirled around Araina’s head again and again. Her consciousness finally accepted what her unconscious self had known from the outset. She looked around at her silent colleagues, who were usually so busy trying to outshout each other. Why weren’t they reacting to the explosive revelation? Perhaps the Police armed with submachine guns had them complying, especially given the new landscape of ‘anything goes.’ What was to stop them opening fire if the media’s questions were deemed too intrusive? What was to stop them opening fire on the Prime Minister should they object to his answers? The dangers inherent in the new order began to sink in.

Ariana started hyperventilating and her peripheral sight darkened, leaving Vincent Knight centre of her tunnel vision. His lips continued moving, but her ears only communicated muffled sounds to her brain. Her heart thumped and her eyes welled up. Ariana's clammy hand lowered the heavy microphone and her fingers parted, allowing it to clatter onto the pavement. A hand grabbed her shoulder and squeezed, but her body was paralysed and she couldn’t turn in response. The hand shook her gently, but her body was too numb for the jolt to have the desired effect of ending her trance. Sweat streamed profusely from her pours, dripping down her arms, legs, chest, back and face. Her dress clung to her cold, slippery body, as if it was as frightened as she was. Her legs became weak and buckled and she fell to the floor, her hands instinctively wrapping around her belly to cushion her baby.

Lying on the pavement, she saw some paper fluttering on the ground. The speech Vincent Knight had relinquished from his grasp. It was nothing more than a handwritten scrawl full of scribbled corrections, which had obviously been prepared in a rush. Nothing Vincent Knight said or did inspired confidence that this action was being taken with due diligence. It was more like a hatchet job. She reached out for one of the pages as they blew towards her.



The final paragraph read, ‘I trust in the moral foundation fiber of citizens to see us through this troubled time. The time Rekindling the spirit that allowed us to win the war beat the blitz, we will prevail again and force forge a new order from the fire. And the message is the same now as it was then: your country needs you.’

Ariana looked up at Vincent Knight, who smiled at the World's media as if he had just delivered the good news of an election victory, not compromised the basic framework underpinning modern civilised society. He waved goodbye and then turned around and waited for the Police to allow him through their line. The Officers noticeably hesitated, prompting him to gesture belligerently, after which they did finally comply. As Ariana watched Vincent Knight stride back towards the Houses of Parliament her tunnel vision followed him, gradually closing in until her sight was consumed by darkness.


© 2014 The Anarchy State


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Added on October 3, 2014
Last Updated on October 3, 2014


Author

The Anarchy State
The Anarchy State

United Kingdom



About
On the eve of bankruptcy the UK suspends all laws, sending the Nanny State spiralling into The Anarchy State. more..

Writing