This Was a Man (The Clifton Chronicles 7)
Emma stood to address the House.
“My lord chancellor,” she began. “I know the whole House will want to join me in congratulating you on your appointment, and to wish you many happy years presiding over the business of the House.”
The cries of acclamation came from all sides of the chamber as Giles bowed to his sister.
* * *
Question number one.
Emma turned to face the crossbenches.
“I can assure the noble lord, Lord Preston, that the government is taking the threat of AIDS most seriously. My department has set aside one hundred million pounds for research into this terrible disease, and we are sharing our findings with eminent scientists and leading medical practitioners around the globe in the hope of identifying a cure as quickly as possible. Indeed, I should add that I am traveling to Washington next week, where I will be meeting with the Surgeon General, and I can assure the House that the subject of AIDS will be high on our agenda.”
An elderly gentleman seated on the back row of the crossbenches stood to ask a supplementary question.
“I am grateful for the minister’s reply, but may I ask how our hospitals are coping with the sudden influx of patients?”
Giles sat back and listened with interest to the way his sister dealt with every question that was thrown at her, recalling his own time on the front bench. Although there was the occasional hesitation, she no longer needed to constantly check the brief prepared by her civil servants. He was equally impressed that she now had total command of the House, something some ministers never mastered.
For the next forty minutes, Emma answered questions on subjects that ranged from cancer research funding, to assaults on A&E staff following football matches, to ambulance response times to emergency calls.
Giles wondered if there was any truth in the rumors being whispered in the corridors that if the Conservatives won the next election, Margaret Thatcher would appoint her as leader of the House of Lords. Frankly, if that were to happen, he didn’t think any of his colleagues in the Upper House would be surprised. However, another rumor that had recently been echoing around the corridors of power was that a Tory backbencher was preparing to challenge Thatcher for the leadership of the party. Giles dismissed the idea as speculation, because although the lady’s methods were considered by some in her party to be draconian, even dictatorial, Giles couldn’t imagine that the Tories would even consider removing a sitting prime minister who had never lost an election.
“I can only tell the noble lord,” said E
mma, when she stood to answer the final question on the order paper, “that my department will continue to sanction the sale of generic drugs, but not before they have undergone the most rigorous testing. It remains our aim to ensure that patients will not have to pay exorbitant prices to drug companies whose priority often seems to be profit, and not patients.”
Emma sat down to loud “Hear, hear!”s, and when a Foreign Office minister rose to take her place in order to open a debate on the Falkland Islands, she gathered up her papers and hurried out of the chamber, as she did not wish to be late for her next appointment with the gay rights campaigner Ian McKellen, who she knew held strong views on how the government should be handling the AIDS crisis. She was looking forward to telling him how much she’d enjoyed his recent performance as Richard III at the National Theatre.
As she left the chamber, she stumbled and dropped some papers, which a passing whip picked up and handed back to her. She thanked him, and was about to hurry on when a voice behind her called out, “Minister, I wonder if I might have a word with you?”
Emma turned to see Lord Samuels, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, chasing after her. If she had made a blunder during question time, he wasn’t the kind of man who would have embarrassed her in the chamber. Not his style.
“Of course, Lord Samuels. I hope I didn’t make some horrendous gaffe this afternoon?”
“Certainly not,” said Samuels, giving her a warm smile. “It’s just that there is a subject I would like to discuss with you, and wondered if you could spare a moment.”
“Of course,” repeated Emma. “I’ll ask my private secretary to give your office a call and arrange a meeting.”
“I’m afraid the matter is more urgent than that, minister.”
“Then perhaps you could join me in my office at eight tomorrow morning?”
“I’d prefer to see you privately, away from the prying eyes of civil servants.”
“Then I’ll come to you. Just tell me when and where.”
“Eight o’clock tomorrow morning, in my consulting rooms at Forty-seven A Harley Street.”
* * *
Emma was well aware of the unpleasant and, some suggested, personal antagonism between the president of the Royal College of Physicians and the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, concerning the merger of Guy’s, St. Thomas’s, and King’s into one NHS trust. The physicians were in favor, the surgeons against. Both declaring, “Over my dead body.”
Emma had been careful not to take sides, and asked the department to prepare a brief that she could consider overnight, before her meeting with Lord Samuels. However, back-to-back meetings, some of which overran, prevented her from reading the brief before she climbed into bed just after midnight. Harry was snoring, which she hoped would keep her awake. But she was so tired she found it hard to concentrate on the details, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
The following morning, Emma reopened the red box even before she’d made herself a cup of tea.