Chapter 10: Back at the Bar

Back In The Bar Jack Toven was in Phil’s Place, the bar not far from the university campus. He was expecting to meet Ashran for a drink but his friend was late. The place was empty apart from himself and Phil.

“How was the meeting?” Phil behind the bar asked.

“Yeah, OK. Interesting. In a sort of ‘somebody ought to do something but nobody knows the fuck what’ sort of way.”

“Let me guess, politics students?”

“Well, sort of. It did seem a bit long on theory and a bit short on doing something. I could understand that though. There were a couple of red flaps there to discourage anyone from causing trouble.”

“So, nothing kicked off?”

“Nah. The MCF types all looked bored as shit; proper disappointed. They’d rather have been back in the canteen. Still it made me think I should be looking for someone who actually did want to change something.”

Phil looked around. The bar was empty apart from Jack. “If you’re serious, I’d say that you need to get out of the centre, down the river I would guess. Do you know Mudchute?”

“Down on the Isle of Dogs?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the sort of place I might look. Try the railway arches in Millwall Park. Hypothetically.”

Jack looked at him carefully. He was obviously being serious. “Thanks,” he said, slowly, “I might just do that.”

Jack sat down with his drink. It was a few minutes later that Ashran arrived. He had Daisy with him. “She was looking for you up at college,” he said. “I know it sounds unlikely but I brought her along just in case.”

Phil looked startled by the new arrival. It had been a while since any sort of woman had been in – that’s if you didn’t count Male Control Force Officers. He didn’t know whether it was a good sign or not. Jack wasn’t much less startled. He couldn’t remember the last time a girl had showed this much interest.

“You disappeared from the rally. I wondered if I’d upset you. Ash was kind enough to help me find you.”

Jack shook his head. “No. It all seemed to have come to a conclusion. I couldn’t see that anyone was suggesting anything that could actually be done, so I didn’t think there was much point in hanging around. Has Spencer decided to try and mobilise some resources then?”

“I don’t think so. For him, it’s like it’s some sort of intellectual exercise rather than an affront to his personal liberty. He’s great at sloganising but not so good at encouraging action.”

“So, is there anything more to the CRMRE than that ‘MANifesto’ newsletter and the rally? I was hoping that someone would be interested in getting the government to change they way it’s working.”

“It’s hard to know. CRMRE seems to be mainly students like you and me and Spence. I mean it’s not like he runs it or anything. There’s been a lot of talk about whether they should produce more leaflets or have more meetings.”

Jack grinned. “I don’t think the problem is more leaflets or more meetings.”

Daisy shrugged. Jack felt that she was as frustrated with Spencer’s approach as he was. “Ash, am I being dumb here or is it unreasonable to be expecting some action to try to achieve change.”

“Don’t ask me, mate, I’m just a simple engineer. What I do know is, if you want the engine to run you have fuel in the tank and you have to press the starter.”

“Exactly. Daisy - Spencer had some good thoughts about Resist, Reject, Reverse. Isn’t there something we can do to, well, I don’t know, reverse some of the street restrictions or resist the curfew. I mean if a few thousand men turned up after curfew in Parliament Square, they couldn’t arrest all of them could they? Isn’t there anyone around that wants to actually do something? Daisy, you must have covered some of this stuff on your course. Does that tell us anything?”