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We still hope and believe that after due deliberation he will wholeheartedly endorse the merger plans, but our judgement of Urquhart is based on much more than commercial interest. He is the only candidate who so far has demonstrated that he is also a man of principle.
There was the sound around the corridors of Westminster of doors being slammed shut in frustration as ambitious politicians realised that Urquhart had once again stolen a march on them.
How the heck does that fart-artist do it?' barked Woolton, discarding any vestige of diplomatic restraint.
In a Mayfair penthouse overlooking Hyde Park, Landless and Urquhart smiled serenely and toasted each other's health and good fortune as they reviewed the success of each other's campaign.
To the next Prime Minister' saluted Landless.
'And to his impartial endorsement of the merger' responded his companion.
THURSDAY 18th NOVEMBER
When nominations closed at noon on Thursday, the only surprise was the last minute withdrawal of Peter Bearstead, who had been the first to announce his intention to stand.
I've done what I set out to do, which was to get a proper election going,' he announced punchily. I'm not going to win and I don't want a consolation prize of a Ministerial job, so now let the others get on with it.'
He immediately signed up with the Daily Express to write personal and indiscreet profiles of the candidates for the duration of the campaign.
That left nine declared candidates, an unprecedentedly large field. However, the general view was that only five of them were in with a serious chance - Samuel, Woolton, Earle, McKenzie and Urquhart. With a completed list of contestants, pollsters redoubled their efforts to contact Government MPs and decipher which way the tide was running.
The starter's flag had now officially fallen, and Peter McKenzie was determined to make an immediate showing. The Secretary of State for Health was a frustrated man. Having been in charge of the health service for more than five years, he had hoped as ardently as Urquhart for a new challenge and new responsibility after the June general election. The long years in charge of an unresponsive bureaucracy, watching almost helplessly as the remorselessly expensive progress of medical science grew faster than the taxpayers' ability or willingness to keep pace, had left him deeply scarred. A few years previously he had been regarded as the rising star of the Party, the man who could combine a tough intellectual approach with an obvious deep sense of caring, and many said he would go all the way. But the health service had been utterly unresponsive to his attempts to reform and improve it, and his repeated encounters with picket lines of protesting nurses and ambulance men had left his image as a man of conscience and humanity in tatters. The postponement of his much touted hospital expansion plan had been the last straw. He had become deeply dispirited, and had talked with his wife about quitting politics at the next election if his lot did not improve.
He greeted Collingridge's downfall like a drowning man discovers a life raft. It was the only thing that mattered to him, and drew all his concentration and effort. Of course he had made mistakes during the initial stages of the campaign, as had most of his rivals, but he entered the final five days before the first ballot full of enthusiasm and energy. He had planned from the start to make an impact on Nomination Day itself, determined to get his head above the crowd. So he had asked his staff to find a suitable visit for him to make which would provide some powerful photo-opportunities for the cameramen and a chance to revive his tarnished image as a humane and caring politician.
But no hospitals, he instructed He had spent the first three years in the Ministry visiting hospitals and trying to learn about patient care, only to be met on bad days by massed picket lines of boisterous nurses complaining about pay and on worse days by violent demonstrations from ancillary staff protesting about 'savage cuts'. Even the doctors seemed to have embraced the philosophy that health budgets were now set by the level of noise rather than the level of need. He almost never got to see the patients, and even when he tried to sneak into a hospital by a side or back entrance, the demonstrators always seemed to know beforehand precisely where he would be, ready to throw their personal and deeply hurtful abuse at him just when the television camera crews had arrived. No Minister had ever found an effective way of dealing with protesting nurses; the public will always side with the angels of mercy, leaving the politician in the role of perpetual villain. So McKenzie had simply stopped visiting hospitals. Rather than running an inevitable and image-denting gauntlet of abuse, he opted out and stuck to safer venues.
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