Part 37 - November the Seventh is Too Late Monday, 28 August, 1972 Dear Diary, Reading the British National News (formerly the Guardian-Times) at breakfast. A vast improvement on having to plough through a variety of partisan papers as one had to in the past to get the full picture. BNN draws upon the full news resources of the impartial BBC and contains all the news that's fit to print. A few other papers, such as the Telegraph and the Morning Star, soldier on, catering to their eclectic audiences but I rather fancy their days are numbered. Peggy, bless her, is tackling the Morning Star. I see our friend Yuri has been made Minister for Industry, she reports. I snort. I am surprised the Morning Star still has foreign news. They devote most of their energies agitating for the release of Scargill. As if he is some sort of political prisoner, rather than a convicted criminal, found by a jury to be conspiring with others to perform acts of violence. He's really no better than the McWhirter twins, not that the Morning Star would ever concede that. Do you think he'll make a difference, I ask. Peggy shakes her head, saying that the parasitic bureaucracy under Lyn is too strong. What the USSR needs is not a new minister but a political revolution.

(Tuesday, 12 September 1972) Ronnie relaxed in his seat on the chartered plane. Mommy was already asleep beside him. The campaign was now in the final stretch, the nomination was his and only eight weeks to go until Election Day. The last week's campaigning had gone very well. He'd thought it might. He'd been taking the pulse of the American body politic for a decade or more now, through contacts and an extensive scrap-book of newspaper clipping. What people wanted from the government was for it to get off their backs. Let the producers keep what they produce, rather than having the cream skimmed off the top by bureaucrats in Washington. Bureaucrats and scroungers were parasites on the American people and Ronnie was the medicine. Surprisingly, a lot of younger, poorer people were responding to this message. Long-haired men and women with the knees out of their denim trousers - the sort that might have turned out at anti-war demonstrations four years ago - were coming to his rallies with banners reflecting his libertarian message. Ronnie had not expected this, but he was delighted that his expectations have been proved wrong. He was proud of his flexible mind, he would always change it when presented with new facts or a better argument. If he hadn't met Mommy he was sure he would have eventually become a Republican. But it might have taken years!

(Friday, 22 September 1972) ACTOR (with bad Russian accent): What is to be done? TONY BLACKBURN (for it is he): A good question Nicky! All listeners have to do is collect the five coupons that will be appearing next week in BNN from Monday to Friday and send them in to the "On Leo's Trail" competition care of Kapital Radio and you could win an all-expenses paid trip for two to New York and Mexico cities! And now, the smash hit from The Small Faces - 'Itchycoo Park'!

"Jesus my back hurts," said Bobby, standing up and massaging the area with his hands. Teddy, who was sharing the flight, nodded sympathetically. Jack had had the same problem but at least Bobby didn't have it so bad. Yet. "I don't think I could go through this again in four years time," Bobby complained. Teddy looked concerned, "The issue may not arise, Mr President. According to the polls Ronnie is four points ahead, nationally." "I know. Why is this Teddy? I've ended the War, the economy's going well. What more do the people want?" "Well Sir, a good economy makes voters more inclined to take risks. They've had 12 years of a Democrat in the White House and feel comfortable about making a change. And the War has been over almost six months - people forget. It wasn't helped by Dick taking most of the credit." Bobby fumed, "That was unavoidable - the price for getting Dick to break the diplomatic logjam. But once the election is over, I'm going to fix Ambassador Nixon's hash." Hank had suggested dragging out the peace treaty - have it closer to the election. But Bobby feared that Republican dirty tricks might derail the treaty altogether, so it was signed sooner rather than later. Speaking of Hank... "Teddy, how's Hank going about pulling a diplomatic rabbit out of his hat?" "Do you want details, sir?" "No. As long as it doesn't involve Britain - Peggy and I have a deal and I don't want to give her reason to welsh. Just the timetable." "Well sir, he's still talking about a November surprise." "It had better be sooner rather than later," the President declared, "November the seventh," election day, "is too late."

Wednesday, 18 October, 1972 Dear Diary, Reading the BNN this morning I came across a piece "Suslov denounces Andropov". It seems the ideology chief in the Kremlin has decided that our friend Yuri is a "deviationist Wedgwood-Bennite". I mentioned this to Peggy, thinking she'd be pleased that there were Wedgwood-Bennites abroad. Instead, her face fell. She thought it didn't sound good for Yuri's career and on reflection I could see why. Sill, they don't shoot those out-of-favour these days, using positions in fish-canning factories instead. (We have the House of Lords[1], which serves much the same purpose. I barely get there these days, what with the pressure of work and everything.) Something inspired Peggy to switch on the wireless. There was a special news broadcast reporting the change of government in the Soviet Union. There was a hope that many of the troops could return to their barracks over the next few days. It seemed our man had come out on top. He must have kept up all that networking he was doing while KGB head, Peggy noted. It's not something the Minister for Industry could get away with here. Of course not, I agreed. The idea of Barbara launching a coup was ridiculous. Peggy looked thoughtful for a moment. Yes, she agreed, it won't be happening.

Tuesday, 7 November, 1972 Dear Diary, I never thought I'd be standing on the balcony of Red Square, watching an October Revolution parade. Well, I didn't. Peggy was there with other foreign dignitaries but I had to stay behind, the Politburo still having decided views about the presence of spouses at events like this. Afterwards we were invited back to Yuri's apartments in the Kremlin. It was an intimate affair, just we two couples, the translators, waiters and a butler. Yuri began by toasting the new Wedgwood-Bennist bloc of nations. We all raised a glass. I knew Peggy would be pleased with this as she is acutely aware of the difficulties in building socialism in one country. It was only when he spoke of his plans for national elections did things go wrong. Why do you want elections, Peggy wanted to know. Yuri thought they'd be more democratic. He felt the previous Stalinist clique had allowed insufficient democracy. This was true but Peggy though that democracy was best kept within the Party. A democratic Party was a party that best reflected the aspirations and mandate of the working class slash proletariat. And as said proletariat represented the majority of society, what point would be served by bourgeois elections? Yuri seemed shocked. Did we not have bourgeois elections in Britain? Peggy patiently explained that Britain was a very conservative country. It wasn't as possible to change tracks, politically and constitutionally, as it was in the Soviet Union. It might still be a decade before the objective conditions were correct to declare the dictatorship of the proletariat. Yuri became more shocked. Was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom a Trotskyite? More a Schachtmanite[2], Peggy explained. Then she turned the tables. Aren't you, she demanded. No, he said, I was just trying to copy Democratic Socialism as I saw it working in Britain. Peggy was scornful in her dismissal of him. He had confused form with substance, one of the worst crimes in Peggy's lex talionis. She accused him of being a bourgeois Social Democrat. The air in the room became quite chilly, and not just because of the impending Moscow winter. There appeared to be a split in the new Wedgwood-Bennist bloc of nations and after all of ten minutes. I decided to change the topic of discussion to the American elections, which diverted the protagonists somewhat. I also asked the butler, through Natashia, for another couple of bottles of the excellent Besserabian red and the evening was able to end pleasantly.

"It's quite a swing we're seeing here, Walter. With the big upheaval in Russia it seems voters are turning back to President Kennedy in these uncertain times." "That's right, Eric. And I've just had a report in. With 42% of the vote countered our expert panel is projecting the state of Texas and its 26 electoral votes going to Kennedy. That's a total of 292 to the President and I think we can declared him returned." The re-elected President killed the sound on the TV and turned to Teddy. "Now what?" Bobby asked. [If you'll just let me continue.]

[1] The House of Lords under Peggy in some respects resembles the Senate under Bobby. Only not all the lords are millionaires. [2] Can also be spelt 'Shachtmanite'. But why would you want to? It should be noted Peggy and Max split over Britain's withdrawal from Vietnam - politics can be a funny thing.