Chapter 15

Faith and Charity

Eric Esterhazy MP

2044

After the applause had died down, Reverend Dawkins once again addressed the televised audience seated ahead of her in the town hall. She had a hard fight ahead of her. Only the barest minority were sympathetic to her. Most of the applause was reserved for Eric Esterhazy, the Minister for Housing and MP for Redhill & Surrey, who had just spoken.

"I don't accept that the shelter we provide for refugees from the nuclear wastelands of India and Pakistan can in any way be described as a 'conduit for immigration'", she said steadily and evenly. "Our mission is to extend compassion to our fellow human beings. The refuge cannot be described as a 'gateway for refugees'."

"Do you intend to deport the people you shelter back to where they come from when they're fit and able to return?" asked Emily Littlejohn, the Fox News UK anchor who was hosting the discussion.

"I think 'deport' is putting it rather strongly," said the vicar.

"Deport them is exactly what you should do," said Eric Esterhazy MP. "The British Isles are overcrowded. We can't cope with yet more immigrants, refugees or whatever you want to call them. If we want to provide a reasonable level of housing, education and medical care to our British citizens, then immigration policy must be vigorously enforced."

"Is it government policy to deport immigrants?" asked the host.

"It is when they've entered the country illegally," said the Minister. "In fact, it's the same policy in all countries in the European Union. It's the policy of most states in the USA. It is the right policy. Otherwise, it's unfair on British citizens who're looking for employment in these straitened times. The country is overcrowded. Jobs are hard to find. We have to be realistic."

"And how do you respond to that, reverend?" asked the host.

"I think you're putting too much focus on the question of immigration and not enough on our moral responsibility," said Diane. "Christians have a moral duty to help those in need. There are hundreds of millions of people throughout the Indian subcontinent who are in desperate need of help."

"I don't think Her Majesty's Government can allow this country to accommodate an extra hundred million British citizens," said Eric Esterhazy MP without waiting to be invited to reply by the host and whose remark was rewarded by thunderous applause from the audience.

Eric observed the reverend as she spluttered a response to the host's follow-up questions, but he knew that she'd never really had a chance. Fox News UK was a good friend of the Conservative Party, particularly in the relatively affluent South East. As the BBC continued to decline as a media presence, Fox News UK was now Britain's most influential and powerful news outlet. He never had reason to fear an invitation to appear on a Fox News program, especially on home turf, whereas he would only appear on the BBC when instructed to do so by Conservative Central Office.

Reverend Diane Dawkins was the token liberal on a panel of four guests in which Eric held the fulcral position as the voice of moderation. The other two guests were Karen Mackenzie, an author of books which claimed to expose the extent by which the liberal minority routinely distorted scientific evidence to serve its interests, and Horace Cutler, the token black guest whose strident views opposing immigration were somewhat less moderate than the Housing Minister's.

Eric was quite content to watch Horace launch a vitriolic attack on the reverend. He patronisingly questioned the kind of Christianity she represented, disparaged the workshy immigrants from Rawalpindi, and emphasised that the United Kingdom should tighten immigration controls along with the rest of the European Union, an institution he normally had no time for.

"It's not racist to want tighter immigration control," said Horace, aware that his skin colour independently affirmed that. "The world is a crowded place. There is famine, war and plague on every continent. The UK's interests are best served by keeping such problems as far out of reach as possible."

"The troubles of any one of God's creation is a matter for us all," said the reverend.

"I admire your well-meaning compassion," said Eric, acting in his self-appointed role as the panel's moderate, "but misguided liberal benevolence is precisely why the world is in the mess it is today. If the less developed nations acted more in their self-interest rather than choosing to rely on the charity of wealthier governments, there wouldn't be so many people unable to rely on their own governments for help."

"Surely the plight of the millions displaced by nuclear war deserves our compassion," pleaded the reverend.

"It is not in the interests of the UK to correct the mistakes made by other nations," said Karen Mackenzie who was utterly unsentimental with regards to such matters. "If two nations should bomb each other that is their choice. The British taxpayer shouldn't have to pick up the tab for their monumental folly. Surely it's bad enough that we have to suffer from the nuclear waste that was thrown into the sky."

However much satisfaction Eric was getting from this mismatched debate, he had to acknowledge that there were still too many obstacles in the way of successfully implementing a sensible immigration policy. The electoral reform that took place so many years ago had made British politics indecisive and vacillating. Coalition government followed coalition government. The Conservatives might be the chief party in the coalition, but they had to compromise with the Liberals, the Democrats and the rest on the left of the coalition. Although Eric was a Tory through and through, his sympathies were more with those in the British Independence Party and the UK National Party on the coalition's right.

Immigration wasn't the only issue that troubled Eric, of course. Taxes were too high. Ten percent income tax was just robbery. VAT at thirty-five percent, although less of a worry, was similarly too high. Too much money was being squandered on failed government schemes to build flood defences, develop alternative energy, house undeserving and drug-addicted wastrels, educate young hooligans, and provide medical treatment for the wilfully obese. And all the while, England and the rest of the UK were going to the dogs. It now ranked as only the fourth richest country in Europe. A nation no longer qualified to be a member of the G10 on the basis of GDP. A once proud nation whose pitiful military capability relied too heavily on buying arms from China and Russia. The streets of Redhill and Reigate were overflowing with unemployed yobs who indulged in drug binges at the taxpayers' expense. Things were not the way they should be and without a firm hand they were only going to get worse.