Southend U3A

Writing for Fun

The Cancellation - Bob Wendelkin

February 2014

He was escorted to the prison Governor.

'Your situation has changed now that a guilty verdict has been returned,' said the Governor. 'You will be here for at least three clear Sundays before the sentence of the court is carried out.'

'I don't think so, I'll be very surprised if Mr Pierrepoint gets his fee, or even if I'm still in prison in three weeks time,' replied the prisoner.

'Well did you kill him or not?' asked the Governor.

'Yes, but I took out a lot of insurance to make sure that I won't swing. Do you want to know why?' asked the prisoner.

If you like,' replied the Governor.

'I'll tell you most of the story but for your safety I won't use their names or you could go the same way as Stephen Ward. You don't have any insurance like me, do you?' asked the prisoner.

'What do you mean the same way as Ward? He committed suicide by taking sleeping tablets,' said the governor.

'Did he?' replied the prisoner looking the governor straight in the eyes.

'Don't be ridiculous this is 1963 and we are in the UK not some 3rd rate dictatorship,' replied the Governor.

'If you really believe that you have nothing to fear, I'll tell you,' said the Prisoner.

'My so called victim was our officer in the war. I was part of his patrol and we were in trouble and he just got into a lorry and drove off, he left us. We all took an oath that if any of us died as a result of his cowardice, the survivors would kill him, I did that as part of that promise.'

'Then I saw him on the Pathe News. There he was strutting around saying what he was going to do as an MP. The memory of that time when he ran off came flooding back and I remembered my vow to my comrades.'

'But that happened years ago, couldn't you forgive and forget,' replied the governor.

'It was only a matter of time. My wife had gone and my daughters were married and so had different names. By that time he had become an MP and in the Government. When I was researching his life I found out so much more about his short comings. He had taken duplicity to another level. I found there were things that concerned the country as well as my personal issues.'

'If he was such a pile of rubbish why did you sully yourself by killing him?' asked the Governor.

'If you had heard how the Japs killed my mates because of his cowardice, you wouldn't even dare to ask that question.'

'So you killed him, how?' asked the Governor.

'After the war I got a job in the Civil Service that by chance eventually enabled me to have access to lots of information that's not generally available to the public. I was in a perfect position to research into his life after he left the army. I wanted to make sure he hadn't changed; you know we all change with time and I didn't want to kill anyone who had reformed. He hadn't in my research, I found that he was up to his neck in shall we say, activities not beneficial to this country. You don't think it just stopped at Blunt, Philby, Maclean and Burgess etc do you? No; it went on. The whole of the government was well and truly infiltrated with spies and traitors look at the Portland Spy Ring. The latest was John Vassell; he was given to MI5 by the KGB to cover a much more valuable KGB government MP. As I had signed the Official Secrets Act I couldn't use any of this information in my defence in court, you see I keep my promises.'

'You don't mean? Why didn't you tell the authorities what you had found,' asked the Governor.

'I did but he was one of theirs and a completely trustworthy gentleman so they and the Government started to do their usual trick by waving their left hand while their right hand is where the real nasty is hidden. That's where Stephen Ward and Profumo Affair came into the picture in the waving left hand. The Government had to divert attention from what was really going on. The Romans had Bread and Circuses for the Plebeians, so Profumo and the girls became the circus and a great sex scandal to confuse the public.'

'What could be better than a beautiful young girl and her friends being involved in a sex scandal to divert the attention of the public from what was really going on. They were thrown to the wolves, while the real excrement was hidden. They were just a side show.'

'A Minister is alleged to have said to MI5, 'Get Ward he knows too much'.

'Well Ward is dead,' said the Governor.

'Some say he was murdered, by having sleeping pills given to him over a period of time, by giving him a couple then a short time later waking him up, and telling he's forgotten to take his tablets; in his confused state he would take some more, doing this a number of time until he over dosed,' said the prisoner

'Did you know that a 20 year old girl was questioned by the police over thirty times and her friend was imprisoned eight days about a driving licence until she finally agreed to testify against Ward that he was her pimp. The government have used the legal system to hide the truth, even a Law Lord wrote a sort of report exonerating the Security Service, it was all a big joke.'

'How did you get caught?' asked the Governor.

'That was simple; as he was getting out of a taxi to go and see his fancy woman I just shot him, but I first told him why. They say that every murderer makes a mistake and that was mine. The Taxi driver was listening and heard the story of him deserting us and from that the honest police tracked me down and here I am,' he replied.

'Before I killed him, as I said, I investigated his life and what I found was that he was involved in a lot of corruption and treachery in the government, enough, I believe, if there was just a threat to publish it could save me from the rope and if I was executed the papers that I had collected would be made public and bring down even the highest in the land because not only was there treachery but a great sex scandal. As I will be dead I feel I'm no longer bound by the Official Secrets Act.'

'Remember MacMillian's Night of the Long Knives, where a large number of the Cabinet were sacked. Super Mac knew there were problems in his government so he tried to deal with it. You must remember that at that time we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy being murdered. All these things happening just by chance? I don't think so!'

'We are in a Cold War and the UK is one of the targets. I found out that he had his part in trying to ruining this country. All wars in the end come down to a war of the production line, one of his jobs was to destroy the UK's industrial and technical ability, remember the TSR2 airplane. Others had the task of using the Do Gooders to run down the educational standards all hiding behind the pretence of treating everyone as equals. Not understanding that Nature had already made people unequal so that the brightest can lead their people, not to mention the Ban The Bomb merchants, Lord Longford and many more who think with their hearts not with their brains.'

'I've no doubt in fifty years time the youngsters of today will be saying something like, 'I envy our grand-children's youth but I don't envy the world they are growing up into.''

'How do you intend to get away from here?' asked the Governor.

'As I said I had access to the Government papers so I recorded and photographed all the documents concerning him and the others in government. I made numerous copies of all the papers that have been distributed over the world and will be made public the moment should I swing. Boxes of papers will be given to all the newspapers in this country and should the government use D Notices to stop British papers printing the stories I have sent them to papers on the continent. But the one certainty is the box that will be sent to Eamon De Valera; that Irishman will get it published. I've also had printed several thousand freebee papers that will be given out at the railway stations.

A short while ago a box of the documents was delivered to No. 10.'

'You seem to have thought of everything,' said the Governor.

'You could remind the government that should anything happen to me, like Ward, I have made arrangements that every once in a while I have to contact my distribution centre. Should I fail and I have disappeared then they are to see that all the papers will be released.'

'I bet you any money that in fifty years time when the government files for this time would normally be released, the government of the future will postpone some of their release for another forty or fifty years; it's that sensitive,' continued the prisoner.

Just then the governor's 'phone rang. 'Hello, this is the governor speaking. I'm to release the prisoner straight away; you are to collect him in about an hour's time. His execution has been cancelled.'

'There I told you so! If you have them by the B's their hearts and minds quickly follow, but my taxi will probably be MI5, so they may quite literally have me by the B's. I wonder if my heart and mind will follow. I hope I survive but I fear my poor country may not. In the end it's Elusion, all is Delusion,' said the prisoner.