David Peace - GB84

Monday 1 — Sunday 7 October 1984

The President loved Blackpool. The Illuminations. The trams. The Tower. The rock –

The Winter Gardens. The Conference. The Heroes’ Welcome. The full support –

‘— we are witnessing not the Fascism of Hitler or Mussolini, nor the military dictatorship of a Pinochet or Franco, but the creation of a sort of controlled democracy, a sort of top-hatted Fascism, a mixture of Thatcher’s Victorian values and modernistic techniques. An Orwellian Big Sister-ism where the workers are kept as they believe in their proper place — at the bottom of the heap. This is very much the ugly face of Conservatism which tramples on the more responsible values of the one-nation Macmillanites —’

Most of all the President loved to see their leader suffer. The Welsh Windbag. His face as red as his hair. The man who had described the President as the labour movement’s equivalent of a First World War general. The President loved to see him suffer as he listened –

‘— this Conference pays tribute to the historic struggle of the miners in 1984. This Conference deplores the total dishonesty of the Conservative government’s determination to attack the National Union of Mineworkers and the whole trade union movement by repressive legislation and an unprecedented and wholesale operation involving unlawful actions of the police, organized violence against the miners, their picket lines, and their communities by means of an unconstitutional and nationally controlled police force —’

The Conference applauded and cheered. Their leader writhed and squirmed –

The President was in his element.

Personally, Terry Winters preferred the Pleasure Beach. The Gold Mine –

The roller-coasters and the rides. The circus and the hats –

Kiss me quick. Squeeze me slow –

The element of surprise –

The man came down the aisle during the debate on local Labour Party reforms. Terry opened his eyes and there he was. The man was standing over them with a photographer. The man had papers in his hand. The man leant across Terry. The man dropped the papers into the President’s lap. The President looked up. The man told him, ‘These are committal proceedings to put you in Pentonville Prison for contempt.’

*

The Jew bounced back. He always does. That’s the Jew for you. Like a bouncing bomb –

And Blackpool had been a big blast. His finest hour –

Mission impossible –

Death or glory.

The High Court had issued the orders for contempt early on the Monday morning. The orders had to be served on Stalin that day. Had to be served or they’d expire –

Neil Fontaine picked up the process server at dawn in Mansfield –

Don Colby and Derek Williams had packed their snap.

Neil drove the server down to Battersea heliport at ninety miles an hour –

Don and Derek had kissed their wives goodbye.

The Jew was waiting with the writ in his flying-jacket and his goggles –

Two thousand pickets waiting for Don and Derek at the Manton gates.

The Jew flew Neil and the server the two hundred miles to the Winter Gardens –

Two thousand pickets waiting to tell Don and Derek the strike was official.

Neil had forged the passes to the floor. Neil had bribed the stewards on the door –

Two thousand pickets waiting to call Don and Derek scab, scab, scabs.

Their President looked down at the papers in his lap –

The strike was not official Don and Derek were not scabs.

The server had served the writ –

The President was in contempt. Don and Derek were back at work.

It was, without a doubt, the Jew’s finest hour to date –

Mission accomplished –

The impetus regained.

*

The dogs bark and bound along the beach at Brighton. They play among the pebbles. Tails up and tongues out.Theytumble through the tide –

The Earth tilts. The Earth turns.

There are the things you know. The things you don’t.

Then there are the other things. The things in between –

The Earth hungry. The Earth hunts.

The Jew is back on the road again. The Jew has an extra-special guest to guide today –

The Prime Minister to the North Yorkshire Police Divisional Headquarters –

The very centre of the target of the latest back-to-work drive.

The Prime Minister is here to thank the troops. Her boys –

The Prime Minister rallies them on their return. Back from the battle lines –

From Brodsworth. From Denby Grange. From Kellingley. From Rossington –

The Prime Minister is impressed by the job they’ve done –

The length of the land. The breadth of Britain –

From Harworth to Hunterston. From Kiveton Park to Kent, Woolley to Wales –

Everywhere they’ve been –

From Ollerton to Orgreave. From the village streets to the picket lines –

Everything they’ve done –

‘Many, many thanks,’ she says. ‘We are all extremely grateful for what you have done, and so are the overwhelming majority of the British public –

‘Many, many thanks for all you have done.’

The Prime Minister leaves by the rear of the building. Her car is waiting –

The black Mercedes, too.

The Prime Minister sits in the back with the Jew in the car park.

The Prime Minister is here to thank the Jew. Her boy –

The Prime Minister is impressed by the job he’s done –

The length of the land. The breadth of Britain –

From Cortonwood to Claridge’s. From Shirebrook to the Strand, Blackpool to Brighton –

Everywhere he’s been –

From the front lines of the North to the pocket books of the South –

From the coalfields to the courtrooms –

Everything he’s done –

‘Many, many thanks,’ she says again. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

The Jew blushes. The Jew gushes. The Jew presents her with his latest works –

The Miners’ Dispute: A Catalogue of Violence –

‘— the planned attacks and the unplanned violence —’

He details the intimidation of Don Colby and Derek Williams and their families –

‘— paint stripper. Heavy wooden staves. Rivet guns. Death threats. Vehicles driven at speed at these men and their families –

‘— the raw and naked intimidation –

‘— the working miners are in the front line of the fight for freedom. Every working miner, every day, as he leaves his home to go to work, faces the possibility that his wife and his children will be abused, threatened, or even attacked while he is at work. These men are not scabs. These men are lions —’

The Prime Minister agrees. The Prime Minister applauds –

‘The best of British.’

The Prime Minister appreciates everything the Jew has done –

Everything he is doing –

But something is wrong. The Jew can sense it –

The Prime Minister looks out of the window. She shakes her head.

The Jew is on the edge of the backseat. The Jew touches the arm of her suit –

He says, ‘If there is anything more I can do. Anything at all. Please tell me.’

The Prime Minister nods. She turns to the Jew. Unburdens herself –

The Chairman is the cause of her concern. He no longer has her confidence –

The Prime Minister likes men she can set her watch by –

Serious. Steadfast. Strong. Systematic –

‘Men like you,’ she says. ‘Men like you, Sweet Stephen.’

The Prime Minister worries about NACODS; that the Deputies’ day will dawn. The Prime Minister worries the Chairman fails to see the seriousness of the situation –