‘Ben, you’re the crudest individual I’ve ever come across.’
‘That’s only because you’ve led such a sheltered life. Now answer the question. Have you slept with her?’
‘No, I haven’t. Frankly I’m not even sure how she feels about me.’
‘How can you be so clever and so stupid at the same time, Sasha? Charlie adores you, and you must be about the only person who doesn’t realize it.’
‘But it still wouldn’t be easy,’ said Sasha, ‘because Newnham doesn’t allow their undergraduates to have a man in their room after six, and even then, if I recall the regulations, he has to keep both feet on the floor at all times.’
‘This may come as a surprise to you, Sasha, but people have been known to have sex before six o’clock, and even with both feet on the floor.’ Sasha still didn’t look convinced. ‘But that isn’t the reason I wanted to see you. Are you still coming to the debate tonight?’
‘This house would not fight for Queen and country,’ said Sasha. ‘Yes, even though it’s a ridiculous motion, which I assume will be overwhelmingly defeated.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that. There are an awful lot of Bolshies around who’d happily support the idea of the Queen living in a council house. But there’s another reason I want you to come. So you can meet my latest girlfriend.’
‘Have you slept with her yet?’ asked Sasha, grinning.
‘No, but it shouldn’t be long now, because I know she’s got the hots for me.’
‘Ben,’ said Sasha in disgust, ‘English is the language of Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘You clearly haven’t read Harold Robbins.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ said Sasha, letting out an exaggerated sigh. ‘However, if for no other reason than to meet this unfortunate lady who’s got what you so elegantly describe as the hots for you, I’ll come along.’
‘Actually, she’s also quite bright.’
‘She can’t be that bright, Ben. Think about it.’
‘And she’s the only woman on the Union committee,’ said Ben, ignoring the jibe.
‘Then she must be out of your league.’
‘There is no league once you get them into bed.’
‘Ben, you have a one-track mind.’
‘Why don’t you invite Charlie along, and we can all have supper together afterwards?’
‘OK, I give in. Now go away. I’ve got a supervision in an hour’s time, and I need to check through my essay.’
‘I haven’t even written mine.’
‘I didn’t realize writing was a prerequisite for anyone studying Land Economy.’
*
It was Sasha’s first visit to the Union, but as soon as the two of them walked into the debating chamber, it was clear that Ben was already a fixture. He grabbed two free places on a bench near the front of the room, and immediately joined in the noisy chatter emanating from the benches around them. It only ceased when the Union’s officers walked in and took their places in the three high-backed chairs on a raised platform at the front of the hall.
‘The one seated in the centre,’ Ben whispered, ‘is Carey. He’s the current president of the Union. I’m going to be sitting in that chair one day.’ Sasha smiled, as Carey rose and said, ‘I will now ask the vice-president to read the minutes of the last meeting.’
While Chris Smith read the minutes, Sasha looked around the packed hall and up into the gallery, which was crowded with eager students leaning over the railings, waiting for the debate to begin.
When the minutes had been read and the vice-president had sat down, the president rose again. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I shall now call upon the Right Honourable Mr Anthony Wedgwood Benn, MP, to propose the motion, that this house would not fight for Queen and country.’
As Mr Benn rose from his place, he was greeted by loud, enthusiastic cheers. Sasha could see, as he looked around the hall, that he appeared to be supported by the majority of students present.
‘Mr President, I’m delighted to have been invited to propose this motion,’ Benn began. ‘Not least because we all know Britain isn’t a democracy. How could anyone claim it is when our head of state isn’t even elected? How can we consider our fellow men and women to be equals in the law, when our second chamber is dominated by seven hundred hereditary peers, most of whom have never done a day’s work in their lives, and whose sole contribution is to turn up and vote whenever their birthright is threatened? Yet these are the very people who can decide if you should go to war with whom they consider to be their enemy.’
Benn’s speech was frequently interrupted by cries of ‘Hear, hear!’ and ‘Shame!’ shouted with equal vehemence, and although Sasha didn’t agree with a word he said, it was undeniable that Benn had captured the attention of the whole house. When he resumed his place, the room reverberated with even louder cheers and cries of shame than before.
Admiral Sir Hugh Munro, a Conservative Member of Parliament, rose to oppose the motion. The gallant gentleman pointed out that if Britain had not fought for King and country in the Second World War, it would be Adolf Hitler who was sitting on the throne in Buckingham Palace, and not Queen Elizabeth II. This was greeted by hear, hears from that section of the audience who’d remained silent throughout Mr Benn’s speech. Once the admiral had sat down, the two seconders spoke with equal passion, but it still looked to Sasha as if those in favour of the motion were going to carry the day.
He had listened carefully to all four speeches, still amazed that such diverse views could be expressed so openly without fear of any repercussions. In Leningrad, half the students would have been arrested by now, and at least two of the speakers sent to prison, if not shot.
The president rose from his seat once again, and invited members to speak from the floor, before a vote would be taken. ‘Two minutes only,’ he said firmly.
One after another, a succession of undergraduates declared that they would never fight for Queen and country, while others asserted that they would die on the battlefield rather than be subjected to foreign rule. It was after a speech by a Mr Tariq Ali, a former president of the Oxford Union, that Sasha found he could no longer restrain himself. Without thinking, he leapt up when the president called for the next speaker, and was shocked when Mr Carey pointed in his direction.
Sasha was already regretting his decision as he walked slowly up to the front of the hall. The house fell silent, unsure which side he was going to support. He gripped the dispatch box to stop himself shaking.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Sasha began almost in a whisper. ‘My name is Sasha Karpenko. I was born in Leningrad, where I spent the first sixteen years of my life, until the communists murdered my father.’ For the first time, a silence fell upon the assembled gathering, and every eye in the room remained fixed on Sasha. ‘His crime,’ he continued, ‘was to want to form a trade union so that his fellow dock workers could enjoy rights that you in Britain take for granted. That is one of the privileges of living in a democracy. As Winston Churchill reminded us, Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. I refuse to apologize for not having been born in this country, but I am grateful to have escaped the tyranny of Communism, and be allowed to attend this debate, a debate that could never take place in Russia. Because if it had, Mr Wedgwood Benn would have been shot and Mr Tariq Ali sent to the salt mines in Siberia.’