The Prime Minister, David Cameron, placed the receiver of his telephone back on its cradle and rubbed his hands through his dark hair. He sighed to himself and leant back in his chair. He closed his eyes and then opened them again. The opulent surroundings of the interior of 10 Downing Street was both a hindrance to him aswell as a source of inspiration to him. He enjoyed walking up to the front of the house, the terraced street front at complete odds to the luxury that lay within and yet acted as a reminder to him of the people he represented, the ordinary men and women of Great Britain, who lived in two up and two houses throughout the land. ‘If only people knew of my burden’ he would often complain. ‘Everybody thinks I have it easy but I don’t, trying to balance everyone’s conflicting interests is an impossible job.’
His wife, Samantha, peered through the oak door and walked in. She was wearing a purple floral print dress with a bronze coloured belt just below the bust, a fascinator was attached to the left hand side of her head and platform shoes added three inches to her height. She looked ridiculous but David had grown tired of trying to correct her fashion faux pas. Almost every engagement they had to attend as a couple had been preceded by an argument about clothes. “Look,” Samantha would say, “I don’t write your speeches for you so you do not tell me what I can and cannot wear.”
Samantha walked towards David. “Another difficult phone call?” she asked.
“You could say that.”
“Oh, who was it this time?”
“George, again,” answered David referring to his creepy Chancellor of the Exchequer, “you know sometimes I could swear he knows precisely what I’m thinking.”
Samantha walked behind David and started to massage her husband’s shoulders. “Can’t you just sack him?” She asked. It was a silly question but David wasn’t in the mood for fighting.
“No,” he replied, “I can’t sack him.”
“Why not? You don’t think he knows. About the dreams?”
David shuddered. Ever since he had risen to become Prime Minister he had been plagued by dreams of George Osborne standing naked before him. “No,” replied David, “besides I haven’t had one of those dreams for quite some time.” He was lying. In fact he had suffered one of those dreams just the night before. George Osborne was naked in front of him dancing the Haka with a wooden duck atop his head. David was not sure of the significance of that dream but it troubled him all the same.
“You know sometimes I wonder why I got into politics.”
“You know why,” replied Samantha, “To prove Mummy and Daddy wrong. They said you’d never amount to anything.”
Samantha was right. David’s in-laws always had a thing against people with swept back hair. “Fop haired buffoons never amount to anything.” His in-laws would always say within his ear shot. David was determined to prove them wrong. However being in politics had stirred something in him. He actually wanted to be good at his job and not just use it as a weapon to prove people wrong.
“It’s not just that. It’s this whole fuel lorry driver strike thingy that has got the country into such a tizz.”
“Why is that?” Samantha asked. “I thought Nick Clegg had that all sorted when he said cars could now run on rubbish from bins.”
“Oh no, no, no,” replied David, “Nick got that idea when he watched Back To The Future Two and thought it was a documentary on time travel.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
David puffed his cheeks out and rubbed his eyes. He recalled the greatest piece of advice he had ever received when he first started out on his political career. He turned his head so he was looking into his wife’s eyes. “I’m going to do the same as I always do. Sit back, do nothing and pray that Argentina do a bit more sabre rattling about the Falklands. That always distracts the tabloids from the real stuff that is going on.”
Samantha smiled at her husband. She admired his grit and refusal to give in, no matter how hopeless the situation, however he was not a great Prime Minister, not yet, not while those dreams were not under control. David could try to be re-assuring but Samantha, like the rest of the country is not fooled easily. She knew that for David to have full control of the country he needs to have full control of his dreams and for that to happen he needs to have full control of the Chancellor and that is the challenge, no the only challenge, that awaits David.
