All we are saying

Excerpt from ‘All We Were Saying,’ Thriftback, Gollancz, 2015.

Chapter Six: The Beginning of the End.

Text taken from contemporary accounts of the famous speech and from the Hansard Parliamentary Report posted on www.britainunited.gov.uk .

Provisional Parliamentary Buildings, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Friday, 11^th November 2011.

The Queen opened a joint session of Parliament , leading the surviving 230 Peers and 173 UK Members of the Commons in prayer for the dead of London and Birmingham.

The Leaders of the Houses of Lords and Commons, the Speaker Sir John Redwood, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition Sir Frank Field, the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and also the six MPs of the Patriotic Front, along with the leaders of the newly-formed Royal Celtic League consisting of most of the formerly nationalist parties of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all joined Her Majesty in hoping that the civilian rescue workers, returning armed forces, and survivors would continue to bring ever greater order and security to the blasted and still burning areas of the Home Counties and Midlands. They also praised the Welsh and West Country Shire Civil Contingencies Divisions managing the diminishing but still dangerous levels of airborne fallout.

Surviving secessionist MPs remained in hiding, along with both Islamic Party Members, if they were indeed still alive.

The Archbishop of Canterbury (formerly of York prior to 11^th September 2011) preached a wide-ranging sermon concerning the divine love that Providence had shown in sending torrential rainstorms and powerful easterly winds throughout southern and central Britain immediately after the explosions, an especially moving and yet hopeful passage concerning Exodus, and another on the victory of David over Goliath. He later reminded Parliament that it was visitors from the East who, along with the humble shepherds, had first come to pay tribute to the infant Jesus and that they too had a part to play in God’s plan.

Death tolls and evacuation schedules matters were tabled for the Home Secretary’s address tomorrow. The Home Emergency Minister’s detailed reports of operations against conventional terrorism in the Emergency Order Quarantine Areas of Yorkshire, Bedfordshire and Lancashire which were published on www.britainunited.gov.uk for a crossbench motion and amendments on the following Monday in what was billed as the most highly publicised and the most democratic debate that Britain has ever seen.

The Prime Minister rose to address Parliament on the causes and consequences of the bombings of exactly two months ago.

‘The bombs came from Pakistan and not from Iran as was previously speculated.

Though the Reunification Government in Islamabad has officially denied it, we now believe that both warheads were looted this spring in the Taliban incursion that reached northern Peshawar. Indian Military Intelligence (to whom I express my deepest gratitude) has supplied information captured during the Reunification that indicates that the whole Taliban/Al Qaeda invasion was intended to gain access to hardened nuclear weapons stores near Peshawar before the then military Pakistani government had fully mobilized against secessionist Islamist provinces.

We now believe that the warheads were smuggled out of the publicly Taliban half of Afghanistan and thence to England, probably by using Fahad Mir’s shipping line to Hull, and thence to safe houses in Yorkshire.

We don’t believe that any more than two warheads were stolen, though our remaining special forces in Pakistan are working alongside both Reunion Government and Indian Army troops in the mopping-up operations and seeking radioactive traces as their sole priority. We are receiving little or no active help from the US forces in the so-called Worldwide Stand-At-Ease areas of Afghanistan or Kuwait.’

No-one asked her about any unofficial and nearly treasonous help from US troops and intelligence agencies, which was rumoured to be widespread and invaluable in the ‘Irwell Whitehall’ of the Salford campus’ regenerated Civil Service, but which was openly posted about and praised on the British blogosphere.

‘Both of my immediate predecessors,’ the Prime Minister went on, ‘Had sought peace and security for the world and our county over the last two years by active disengagement from fighting Islamism abroad in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. They sincerely believed that if we left them alone, then they would leave us alone.

They were wrong.

Peace lovers and patriotic supporters of our troops alike – both on the Left and on the Right - agitated long and successfully for the scaling down and eventual ending of British military operations in Afghanistan. They typified our forces’ previous operations there as ‘neo-Victorian’, ‘imperialist World-Order liberalism’, and ‘dishonest Blairite adventures.’ But an honest reading of the history of Islamic political power will realize that it is always expansionist until it is either overcome by greater force or by the threat thereof. The Troops Out movement of two and three years ago, coupled with the unprecedented US policy of Worldwide Stand-At-Ease after the 2010 mid-term elections led to a brief and tragic triumph in the Middle East of Revolutionary Iran and the resurgence of the Taliban to their East – and nearly to a nuclear-armed Islamic alliance from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

Centrifugal and democratic forces ended the worst of that – but not before the nuclear tragedies here and in Israel.

And so to better news.

The 150,000 Israeli refugees in Bristol, Liverpool, Plymouth and Southampton are proving to be extremely helpful in the fallout and reconstruction efforts, and their almost universal Nuclear, Bacteriological and Chemical warfare training and the high proportion of trained medical staff amongst them is saving thousands of British lives every day. Every day too, thousands more arrive from the Levant as quickly as our reconstituted merchant fleet, the Royal Navy and National Airlines can bring them in from Cyprus and Gibraltar. I can assure Her Majesty, Noble Lords and Ladies and Right Honourable and Honourable Members that after our returning armed forces, Israeli expatriates are everywhere in the forefront of the anti-radiation effort and the rebuilding and staffing of hospitals.

One rather welcome difficulty that we face is the near-unanimous willingness of young and old Israelis alike to serve with the Home Guard in the Pennine and Bedfordshire EOQAs. Anyone who’s seen the films of Israeli settlers and their friends in Florida, New York and Los Angeles seeing off Anti-Impeachment rioters and gunmen will agree that not only do these gallant people have much to avenge but also that they have the means and the willpower to hold their tormentors to account. However, their help under arms is not needed yet in the United Kingdom. The Home Guard is working beyond Sir Frank’s and my late predecessor’s expectations to restore peace and law in those few areas still prone to violent treason.’

She put down her glasses and papers and launched impromptu into what was later described as ‘the best rant the internet never posted.’

‘Look. We’ll all have to live here together when this is done. Whatever led to this, whoever supported our enemies, we shall most of us be alive in these islands in a decade’s time if the radiation goes on being washed away, and we all have to do our part to remake a lasting peace. I’m not going to ask for Israeli volunteers when the Home Guard, Regular Army and the Royal Crescent legion are getting the job done. No sir, no. I will not give way.’

Here she refused to allow an interruption from the controversial deputy leader of the Patriotic Front.

‘You and I sir can, after this is all over and done, feel some bitter satisfaction about having been right all along about the traitors and potential traitors in our midst. But here and now and for the sake of the future, we should also rejoice – yes, I say “rejoice” - and stand humbled about being so pessimistic about their numbers. No sir, no. I will not yield the floor to you.

Mister Speaker, despite the known ideological motivation for these three colossal acts of nuclear murder, I have to say that sympathy for that cause is now all but non-existent here in Britain. A few hard-core holdout areas remain, but the Leicester Legion accompanied the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Home Guard Divisions to victory throughout the Black Country a mere week after those divisions and that Legion were founded and sketchily armed.

Overnight hangings now outnumber beheadings by a factor of thirty to one in Bradford’s last remaining EOQA, and the Oldham curfew is not merely holding up but is being enthusiastically enforced by Lancashire companies of the RCL.

We’re not out of the woods yet. There is much to do and no doubt there will be many setbacks, but the bombings that were intended to destroy Britain and leave it disunited and dispirited have only served to strengthen the people’s resolve to live in peace and freedom under democratic institutions with no-one and no community or belief system above and beyond the law.

Despite the great and painful work ahead to rebuild our wounded country, we can look once more to the overseas origins of this bloodshed, honestly examine and discuss the belief system that prompted it, and plan our foreign policy to recognise that wishful thinking and any kind of isolationism will no longer do against a remorseless, determined, and powerful enemy.

Sleeping dogs do not lie. They grow strong and go hunting.’