Chapter 2: Phil’s Place

Phil’s Place was slightly less rough than the Pig’s Tale as a drinking venue.

Jack Toven and his friend Ashran Kush, students at the nearby university were deep in discussion.

“You know the thing that really pisses me off?” Jack threw back his second beer like he’d be able to afford a third.

“Let me guess, is the first word ‘New’ and the second one ‘Order’?” Ashran was taking more care with his own drink. His cash wouldn’t stretch to too many of these in one evening. He was hoping that Jack wouldn’t go on too long about this. Jack’s rants were becoming predictable.

“Yeah, well, no, not entirely. I mean you can’t blame them for doing what they told everyone they were going to do. I mean they must be the first political party in years that have actually started delivering on their manifesto commitments. And you can’t blame the women, ‘cos after all it’s only what they’ve had to put up with for years.”

“Hey, listen to the new, woke, Jack!”

“No, it’s the bloody men that annoy me. Some of them even voted New Order. From the rest there’s piss all sign of any resistance. All the government staff seem to have gone along with it quite happily, ‘smooth transition of power’ and all that. Police don’t seem to care what laws they enforce as long as someone else is telling them what to do, although heaven help you if you’re a man and you’ve got any aspirations beyond being a beat copper. The military doesn’t seem bothered. Businesses have been happy to sack their male bosses and stick women in to meet quotas as long as it keeps the tax man and the stock market sweet. People like my parents are trying to work out how the hell they can turn over decades of living in a way that now all the media is telling them was like some sort of Neanderthal existence. Even ordinary blokes like us are either desperate for a sponsor or pushing to get on the government scheme. The only sign of anyone desperate enough to do something was that bloke who tried to blow up the Prime Minister and it looks like he was some sort of nutter.”

“Well, that’s how it got reported anyway.”

“How many others do you know that are trying to get by without knuckling under? Who’s standing up for the man in the street?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Look at this place! They’re all just cramming in here, aren’t they?”

Phil’s Place was on Woburn Walk, not far from the University College campus, where Jack and Ashran were studying. It was one of the few venues that accepted unaccompanied men these days. It suffered from the consequences. It was almost empty apart from Jack and Ashran. There were only two other customers in the bar – both men - sitting at a table.

Phil’s Place just wasn’t the sort of bar that you’d see women and they were the ones with the cash. There were places that catered for them exclusively and plenty of places that let men in only if they had an accompanying female. Jack couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman in Phil’s Place.