like the whole Aids thing too. We only sat up and took notice when celebrities in the west started to suffer from it. It just goes to show that poor black Africans come at the very bottom of the world’s pecking order’.
‘I agree, Ashley’ said Martha. ‘It’s an absolute disgrace that makes my blood boil’.
‘Well I’ll put something together on Ebola and have it ready for when you get back from the state opening’ said Ashley, gathering his files and papers together. ‘I’ve had your suit dry cleaned and it’s hanging up in my office’.
‘Thank you, Ashley’ said Martha, smiling at him. ‘What would I do without you?’
An hour or so later Martha went to the home office to receive a security briefing from the home secretary Angela Carter after the national threat level had been upgraded.
‘Good morning, Angela’ Martha greeted. ‘How’s the family?’
‘They’re fine, thanks’ Angela replied. She had a reputation as a difficult woman to approach and was trying to soften her image. ‘How are yours doing?’ she asked referring to Martha’s three young children.
‘They’re all doing well, thanks’ said Martha who would never admit in a million years her daily struggle with guilt over sometimes not being there for her kids before they went to school and when they came home. She often didn’t spend any quality time at all with them in the evening. ‘How’s your son settling in at Manchester University?’
‘Oh he’s having a whale of a time, thanks’ said Angela. ‘He’s in a flat with a couple of fellow students and he’s enjoying his course very much’.
‘He’s living in my constituency, you know? We’ll have to have him round for his tea’.
‘He’d eat you out of house and home if you did, believe me’ said Angela.
‘You must miss him?’
‘Oh I do but a parent has to let go sometime as you’ll find out in a few years with your three’.
‘I see you’re off to Brussels for the meeting of European Interior ministers tomorrow?’
‘That’s right’.
‘And you’ll still be opposing the European bill to combat paedophilia and close down child pornography sites?’
‘Yes’ said Angela. ‘That’s the official government line’.
‘Angela, this is about protecting some of the most vulnerable children right across Europe from some of the sickest individuals in our society’.
‘Yes I’m aware of that, Martha’.
‘Well just how can you oppose legislation to try and stop this heinous practice and protect all those children, Angela?’
‘It’s not about what you say it’s about, Martha, it’s about protecting the Tory vote from the onslaught of UKIP’.
‘And if you’re seen to oppose it then it will play well into the hands of those who might vote UKIP just because it’s got Europe written on it’ Martha emphasized. ‘And you’re using the victims and perpetrators of one of the sickest of crimes to do it. Christ, that leader of UKIP has got such a lot to answer for. How can you sleep at night, Angela?’
‘Very soundly as it happens’.
‘Is that after all the alcohol you consume in the pub across the road before you finally go home?’ Martha retorted angrily. ‘To support this legislation would be the right thing to do Angela and you know that’.
‘Tell me Martha, when your party leader sacked your good friend the shadow secretary of state for education recently and knowing that he’s been plotting with you and your husband to undermine your party leader and set one of you up for the top job, did you feel like your party leader was asserting his authority and making a shot across your bows?’
Martha could’ve slapped the sanctimonious cow. ‘Don’t try and change the subject, Angela’.
‘And would your husband really let you go for the leadership? Or am I right in thinking that sexism is alive and kicking just below the all women shortlist veneer of the modern Labour party?’
‘I think we should get down