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'Which slick, flashy television performers in particular?'
Try Michael Samuel'
'Mmmm, young, impressive, principled, seems intelligent — not at all to my liking. He wants to interfere in everything, rebuild the world. Got too much of a conscience for my liking, and not enough experience in taking hard, sound decisions.'
'So what do we do?' asked Urquhart.
Landless cupped the crystal goblet in his huge hands, swirled the dark liquor and chuckled quietly.
'Frankie, tides turn. You can be swimming strongly for the shore one minute, and the next be swept out to sea.. '
He took a huge gulp of cognac, raised his finger to order another round, and settled his bulk as comfortably as he could into his chair before resuming the conversation.
'Frankie, this afternoon I instructed a small and extremely confidential team at the Telegraph to start contacting as many of the Government's Members of Parliament as they can get hold of in the next twenty-four hours to ask which way they are going to vote. In the next edition of the Telegraph, they will publish the results -which I confidently predict will show Mr Samuel with a small but clear lead over the rest of the field'
'What?' exclaimed Urquhart in horror. 'How do you know this? The poll hasn't even been finished yet...'
'Frankie, I know what the poll is going to say because I am the publisher of the bloody newspaper'
'You mean you've fixed it? But why are you pushing Samuel?'
'Because although the poll will show a very reasonable level of support for you, at the moment you can't win the contest. You're the Chief Whip, you don't have any great public platform from which to preach, and if it becomes a free-for-all you're going to get trampled in the rush'
Urquhart had to acknowledge the weakness of his position as the faceless man of Government.
'So we push Mr Samuel, get him off to a roaring start, which means instead of a free-for-all we have a target at which everyone is going to shoot. In a couple of weeks' time, he's going to be amazed at the number of bad friends he's got within the Party, all trying to do him down. Hell be on the defensive. Fighting the tide.'
Urquhart was astonished at the clarity of the Landless analysis, and began to understand why the East-Ender had become such a striking success in the business world.
'So where do I come into this great plan?'
'You've got to develop a unique selling proposition for yourself, something which will be attractive to your fellow MPs and set you apart from your rivals.'
'Such as?' asked the bewildered Urquhart.
'Frankie, you become the archetypal compromise candidate. While all those other bastards are shooting and stabbing each other in public, you slip quietly through as the man they all hate least.'
'That's what the Social Democrats used to pin their hopes on. Remember them? And frankly I'm not sure I have much of a reputation as being the obvious compromise candidate.'
'But the Social Democrats didn't have my help or my bunch of newspapers behind them. You will. High risks, I know, Frankie. But then they are high rewards.'
'What do I have to do?'
To catch the tide, your timing has to be right Frankly, I would be happier if there were a little time - perhaps a month - between now and when the voting starts to give the other contenders time to tire, for their campaigns to ship a little water and to get everyone bored with the choice of candidates on offer. Then you discover a large press campaign promoting your late and unexpected entry into the race, which brings back an element of excitement and relief. The tide starts running with you, Francis.'
Urquhart rioted that Landless had called him by his proper name for the first time. The man was absolutely serious about his proposal.
'So you want me to see if I can slow the election procedure down a little'
'Can you do it?'
'Although Humphrey Newlands runs the election, according to the Party's constitution the timing of the ballot is entirely in the hands of the Prime Minister, and he would do nothing to help Teddy Williams' favoured candidate. So I think there's a damned good chance...'
* * *
TUESDAY 26th OCTOBER
'Prime Minister, I haven't had a chance to speak with you since your announcement yesterday. I can't tell you how shocked and - devastated I was.'
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