Fears of revolution
AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS
Scotland Yard is believed, writes Bill 'I'm a believer Rees-Mogg, Sensation and Scare Monger Extraordinary to the Palace of White- hall, to be standing by with armoured cars, machine guns and low-range nuclear weapons, ready at any moment to come to the assistance of a secret organisation of violent Reaction- aries at present infiltrating Metropolitan Lon- don. Bitterly disappointed by the failure of the Great 27 October Demonstration, despite the hysterical encouragement of persons like my- self, to burst into violent flames and thus entrench the Reactionaries unshakeably in their positions of power, these men, many of whom are known to the police, now appear to be set on a campaign of destruction, dislocation and sabotage designed to bring the nation to its knees, if possible by 25 December.
For some years now secret meetings, in- comprehensible to an outsider, have been tak- ing place in a barn-like Victorian building on the Westminster Embankment. The conspira- tors, some wearing suits and posing as 'busi- nessmen,' some accompanied by women, enter and leave the building openly, and it has been the practice of the police to turn a blind eye, only intervening in the event of fights breaking out in the environs of the building, either be- tween warring factions inside, or with members of rival gangs outside attempting to 'muscle in.'
Although there has, been speculation for some time, both in the press and on television, as to the exact nature of their activities, in- dividual Reactionaries have only 'made the headlines' and thus been identified by the general public when specific acts of vandalism, terrorism or sabotage have been brought to light, or when public 'punch-ups' and knifings have occurred.
The group's most successful publicist, al- ready well known to television viewers and newspaper readers throughout the country, is pipe-smoking, grey-haired Hariq Harry, a crypto-reactionary from the days when he worked for a short time as a don at Oxford University. Like most of his fellow-reaction- aries, he avoids committing himself to any clear programme or constructive manifesto, preferring when pressed to take refuge in the language of violence, using phrases like 'break- through,' crash,"shake-up' and 'axe.' To the extent that he can be said to hold political views at all he appears to be in favour of adjusting the status quo in such a way as to produce a self-perpetuating dictatorship, and to have an almost religious faith in the some- what enigmatic sayings of his hero, Chairman Mac.
Viciously attacked by other Reactionaries as a 'playboy,' he is thought to be morbidly obsessed with his own relationship with the press, frequently indulging in prolonged sulks, sudden outbursts of pique and heel-drumming tantrums . when attacked. Despite his blood- curdling threats, frequently quoted in the press, to any group, individual or institution that he sees likely to challenge his own concept of `Whitehall Power' he does not now appear capable of providing the kind of leadership needed to unite the factious and squabbling groups, and will probably only be retained in his role as publicist. His critics feel too that it is in the complicated and lethal machinery of press and television manipulation that Hariq Harry is most likely to accomplish his own suicidal destiny.
Widely regarded as dangerous, and even considered capable in some circles of provid- ing a form of evil leadership for this disparate agglomeration of cut-throats and theoreticians, is small, stooping, cat-eyed fanatic Enoch Powell. Like Hariq Harry, he is well known to the press, appealing to the more irresponsible papers like The Times with his capacity for alarmist exaggeration and pandering to the basest and most savage emotions. His political ideas are believed to be a little more developed than those of Hariq Harry. but critics point out that having the mentality of an elderly pop- singer, prepared to make use of obscenity, brutality and beastliness in the service of his own publicity and in promoting his own 'act,' Mr Powell, or 'the Proff,' as he is known to his ignorant and in most cases illiterate fans, is unlikely to survive in a bigger world than the narrow back-alley in which he at the moment is wielding his razor.
One other contender for domination of the Reactionaries is ageing choirmaster and ex-fat man Eddie 'Mr Teeth' Heath, known as a moderate, but otherwise undistinguished and <-4:1 indistinguishable from the mass of his sup- porters. The other men and women in the Victorian Barn are for the most part, according to infiltrators, docile cannon-fodder, ready to risk derision, ruin and even death in exchange for the glamour of being members of this 'exclusive' gang and for being allowed to carry out the wrecking, malicious damage and dis- location of the economy advocated by their more intelligent activists. Already, pursuing the doctrine of Chairman Mac that 'everything, eventually, runs out: nothing remains,' and religiously practising 'active non-interference' in the processes of bureaucratic decay, the Reactionaries have brought the country to the brink of ruin and pushed it over the side.
Beneath the 'active' front of carefully planned attacks on the Bank of England, the House of Lords, the BBC and other organ- isations seen by publicist Hariq Harry as 'com- petitive' with Whitehall Power, the ruthless work of non-interference goes on, 'allowing' the economy to collapse, 'allowing' high blocks of flats, after repeated assurances as to their safety, to fall down, and 'allowing' a misguided colonial war to escalate into racial massacre. In this way, or so the violent Reactionaries believe, the electorate can be brought to a state of demoralisation in which they will not only realise, but also accept as necessary the fact that the so-called democratic system has been removed, and that a gangster dictatorship, reminiscent of the Reactionaries' Dream of Feudalism, has quietly taken its place. And with the police force now deserting to a man, relinquishing their traditional role of protecting the public in favour of that of protecting the Reactionary government, the outlook for the man in the street looks bleak in the extreme. Certainly The Times will be fearless in know- ing which side it must support.
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