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In the grand scheme of things, and as they stood, the Trust would be happy once the work was done, firm in the knowledge that their building was safe from the ivy again. These things needed doing, otherwise the world would get out of hand.
How on earth would the country manage without government?
Terry had already resigned himself to the fact that we’d be thrown into a state of anarchy, where those wishing to escape would kill for petrol and food in a way similar to most TV ‘visions of doom’. There’d be ten days of food and then eventually everyone would die and the final scenes would be in black and white with a gritty textural background, panning out to orbit.
Rob, still a relative youngster, hadn’t thought about politics much, but he could see from the ways people around him acted up that things weren’t right. The papers and news were full of horror-stories.
No one he knew in town had any money to speak of and all the others in his house, regardless of whether they were employed or not, spent most of their time locked up in their hutches, trying to think of a way out.
Ray, as you know, has his own take on government, and relishes the time when he can offer his own findings to the country to seek their honest appraisal.
Desperation would be key to timing. He couldn’t very well tell them that the status quo was dead if there was no proof, even if they were living it.
Having interpreted the Mayan calendar, Ray set the date of ‘The Beginning Of The End’ for the twentieth of December in the year of 2012.
Inkeeping with the Mayan view, he thought this a fitting date to usher in the advent of change, and saw ahead to the catastrophic day in a trancelike state when he meditated in his living-room armchair at quiet moments.
He saw parades turned into protests by demonstrators, the police beating the innocent and the angry in equal measure as motherless children ran wild.
He saw the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, fittingly comical and in all its stupor, the firework arrangement pathetically cancelled due to ‘technical problems’, the flame-bearer caught with a thrown bottle and concussed, the microphones that didn’t work properly, the disastrously choreographed dance troupes dribbling amongst themselves, the scrimped stadia.
It would be the shambolic mess that would open the minds of the people to the need for change.
However ridiculous that day would be, Ray’s interpretation of The End wasn’t macabre or evil.
On the contrary, it was really just The Beginning of a new era, a place where completely different rules would apply for the good of the people and not the few.
By this time, Members of Parliament and Heads of State would quietly accept defeat and steal away from their salubrious workplace.
Councils would accept responsibility alongside the Royal Family, the police and the people.
Details of all empty buildings would be published and taken on by whomsoever chose that as their dwelling or workplace so long as they agreed to look after it. If the tenant was unemployed, that person could live there rent-free for a total of five years.
Ownership would remain in the hands of the legal owner but he could only charge a set amount as rent, about a third of what it is today.
Badly constructed council estates would be torn down and rebuilt. Council blocks would be replaced by low-level housing.
Council tax would be axed and parking tickets would be a thing of the past.
White-collar corruption would be banned and heavy sentences would be given to those found responsible of fraud.
The manufacturing industry would be encouraged to bloom and blossom, increasing the amount of front-line jobs. There would be no benefit system of any kind, because those who were unemployed would have to pay no rent. All national health would be free as it is today.
The unemployed would be given tokens for food and drink. Alcohol and drugs would be banned.
Landowners would be forced to rent land to the public for purposes of farming, and jobs would be made available to work the land.
Meanwhile, those with jobs would go about daily life as usual, earning a decent wage.
The economy, or more precisely the coffers of each individual council, would be financed purely by the wealth of the rich and a ‘purchasing tax’, as Ray called it, which would be levied at twenty percent of everything on sale in the country.
Regional audits would calculate and release the exact amount of ‘purchasing tax’ to each council in the country each month, distributed accordingly.
There would be no income tax or national insurance contributions for those on ordinary salaries.
Insurance companies and ‘competition’ would cease to exist.