A Vote of No Confidence

Byrne arrived in Marshfield an hour before the meeting was due to start. He wondered why Drake, the chairman, had thought it so im­portant that he should be present.

He let himself into the local Party office, a shop in the High Street which had been turned into an office during the election in 1950. There was a photograph of himself on one of the walls taken nine years ago which advertised:

Mr. John Byrne, your new M.P.,² will attend at³ these offices from 6.30 p.m. onwards every Friday evening. Bring your problems to your new Labour M.P.² He will solve them for you.

Perhaps that was the trouble, he thought. He had intended to be present every Friday evening when he was elected, for a year he had at­tended regularly. Every Friday he had interviewed a couple of dozen constituents about their housing problems, their pensions and a lot of individual problems.

After a year he started to make excuses. He could not find houses for people when the houses did not exist, and in any case these constit­uency problems were better dealt with by letter. What was the point in spending every Friday evening in the dirty office, when there was so little he could do to help the people who waited patiently to see him?

He decided that they had called him in order to make him promise to attend more regularly in future.

I must win them back, he thought, for if he lost Marshfield he had lost everything — no seat, no right of entry to the House of Commons.⁴

Jimmy March, the Party secretary, entered the room with his pile of agendas and started to place them on each of the chairs. He was, too, obviously avoiding Byrne, whom he must have noticed.

"Hello, Jimmy," Byrne called cheerfully, "always on the job."

"Oh, hello."

Byrne could feel the hostility in the emphatic way March moved round the room.

"I hear there's likely to be a spot of bother tonight," Byrne said.

"Perhaps."

"Of course, I'll be along more regularly on Fridays in future now we're in Government."⁵

"It'll be a change to see you," March said indifferently.

The door opened again and Charlie Drake, the chairman, came into the room, anxiously.

''Glad you're here, Johnnie," he said, shaking Byrne's hand.

"I got your message, what's wrong?" Byrne asked.

"I'm none too sure. Some of them want to move a vote of no confi­dence in you."

"Damn it, they've only just elected me."

"I know, I know. One or two of them weren't keen even then."

"But what have I done? There hasn't been time to do anything since we got back."

"They've got hold of something."

"Are you with me?"⁶ Byrne asked anxiously.

There was no reassurance in Drake's voice, although he did nod his head. "Oh, yes... but I'm only the chairman. I've got to go with the will of the meeting."

One by one the committee members came in. Some of them smiled and nodded to him, but too many of them either did not want to catch his eye or were intentionally avoiding him. Annoyance gave way to fear. This was serious. There was obviously a prearranged plot on hand, and most of the younger people knew about it and were behind it. The older members of the committee sensed the atmosphere, but were unaware of the details. Whatever had started the crisis,⁷ he had to depend on the old hands against the youngsters. So his obvious tactic was to play for their support.

Drake was nervous, he showed it in the way the table shook when he rose and rested his hand on it.

"We'd better make a start," he said.

Ted Collins jumped to his feet in the far back corner.

"This is it,"⁸ Byrne thought. "This is the start."

Collins said: "I gave you notice that we wanted to discuss a vital matter concerning our Member. We can do it or we can wait. But to my way of thinking it would be better to get on with it."

There was a growl of "hear-hears."⁹

"I'm in your hands," Drake said weakly, "but it's not right. This should come at the end."

"Now," Byrne thought, "I'd better make a move." He stood up.

"I agree with Ted. I don't know what you want to discuss but let's get on with it."

He sat down. One up to him.¹⁰ They could not now accuse him of

trying to hide behind the rules.

"All right,"said Drake, "but don't take too long about it, Ted. We've a lot of business to get through."

Now that Ted Collins had the floor" he seemed to grow in Byrne's eyes. He was quietly confident and very sure.

"Mr. Chairman, Comrades, I don't particularly enjoy the task which lies before me. But it has been brought to my notice that our Member has recently been involved in a series¹² of incidents in the House of Com­mons which amount to a direct betrayal of the cause for which we all worked so unselfishly at the recent election. What I want to say is this. This so-called Socialist Government which we just elected is about to start on a programme of repression in the Middle East,¹³ on a plan to use British troops, our lads, lads from Marshfield perhaps, in a wicked imperialist adventure in the Middle East. This right-wing¹⁴ Government which we struggled to elect, has given orders to support the Sheikh of Masran¹⁵ in suppressing the democratically elected assembly.

"Where does our Member come into this? I will tell you. He was to raise the matter on the floor in the House. A large group of fellow-mem­bers were ready to support him. But what happened? The man we sent to Westminster¹⁶ to safeguard democracy betrayed the workers of Mas­ran. He let down his comrades in the House,⁴ because when the time came to approach the Prime Minister, before the eyes of the whole coun­try, our Member was hiding somewhere.

"I say this, we can have no confidence in a man who is not prepared to stand up for his principles. We cannot put our trust in a turncoat. He has let democracy down. He has let us down. I move."¹⁷

He sat down.

Sarah Robson jumped to her feet. "I'd like to second the motion,¹⁸ Mr. Chairman. This isn't the first time our Member has failed us. How often have we seen him here in the last year or two? Time after time people have stopped me in the street and complained that they have written to the Member and had no reply."

Byrne knew he had to answer to this.

The broad, full, self-important figure of Alderman¹⁹ Raymond Glen rose to speak.

"I don't like to say this, but blunt speaking is my motto. You all know me. I'll say to a man's face what others say behind his back. I'm afraid our Member has got a bit too big for his boots.²⁰ He'll do well to remember that we public figures owe everything to the people who put us there."

Byrne rose firmly. He dared not allow another speech against him.

"What is the basis for this attack?" he asked. "That I talked to the Prime Minister and tried to get him to change his mind on Masran? And I can say this, knowing that I can trust you, that the Prime Minister gave me firm promises which were satisfactory, as time will show." Then, his words became emphatic, almost sincere. "The Prime Minister took me fully into his confidence. All will be for the best, I make no apol­ogy for what I have done."

He was sticking his neck out too far,²¹ he thought. But if troops were sent to Masran he could always say that the P.M.²² had deceived him, gone back on his word and let him down.

"Now I come to the more serious part of our friendly discussion, the charge that I have ignored the constituency. Let me tell you this. During the past year I have addressed ninety-two public meetings up and down the country as my contribution to defeat the Tories." He in­vented the figures as he went along. He had learned from experience that it was always more effective to give the exact figures—provided, of course, no one was in a position to check your figures. But as he spoke he knew that he did not sound convincing, and he suddenly understood that they did not trust him. I've lost, he thought. I'm beaten.

"Vote," someone shouted.

Charlie Drake looked round anxiously.

"In view of the Member's explanation, does Mr. Collins wish to withdraw his motion?"

"No," an uncompromising reply from the back.

'Then we'll have to vote. Those in favour of the vote of no confi­dence in our Member."

Drake counted slowly. "One, two... thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three. Against."

Five hands went up. There were no abstentions.

Charlie Drake was speaking.

"This is a very serious decision. And it can't do the Party any good coining so soon after the election. Let's leave it like this, we've made our decision—now let's say to our Johnnie here that he's on trial. Are you agreed?"

"Agreed," they said, once they had made their point.

Byrne wanted to thank them, to say something, to promise to behave himself. But he could not. Everything in the room was swimming in front of his eyes. It had been a narrow escape. Yet he should have seen it coming.

Following the election he had concentrated too much on his step-by-step progress in Parliament. He had been too ambitious. For years his mind had been constantly busy with the problem: if I take this line, how will it influence my position in the Party? What are my chances? What initiative can I take to push me a half-inch²³ further towards the Ministerial office and the Ministerial car? He would have to be more careful in the future.

NOTES

1. Wilfred Fienburgh (1919-195S), English writer. During the war ha took part in the Normandy Invasion. After the war he became a trade union official. In 1951 he was elected Labour M.P. for North Islington. Нг died in 1953 after a car accident. A few days before his death he sent the manuscript of No Love for Johnnie to a publishing house; it was pub­lished in 1959.

2. M.P. Member of Parliament.

Labour M.P.: Member of Parliament from the Labour Party.

3. attend may be followed by at to indicate the place where one at­tends or is to attend. E.g. It was requested that he attend at the office at 10 a.m. next Thursday.

4. the House of Commons == the House палата общин

the House of Lords == the Lords палата лордов

5. in Government: in power — у власти

6. Are you with me =Are you on my side? Will you support me?

7. crisis ['kraisis] as many other Greek words absorbed into the language (basis, thesis, analysis, etc.) keeps its Greek plural form: crises ['kraisi:z] (bases, theses, analyses, etc.)

8. This is it: here — началось

9. hear! hear! int. An expression of support for the speaker's words, loosely corresponding to the Russian: правильно говорит

10. One up to him: one point in his favour

11. to have (take) the floor: to address a meeting, to speak in debate

12. series: a number of; one form is used lor both the singu­lar and the plural

13. the Middle East: Ближний Восток

14. right-wing: reactionary — правый, реакционный Compare: left-wing — левый, прогрессивный

15. Sheikh of Masran: ruler of Masran (an imaginary Arab state)

16. Westminster =Palace of Westminster, seat of British Parliament

17. to move =to make a motion: to make a formal request or pro­posal at a meeting — вносить предложение

18. to second: to support a motion. No motion will be voted upon unless it is seconded

19. Alderman: one of the senior members of a city or county council

20. to be too big for one's boots: to pretend to be more important than one is in fact

21. to stick one's neck out (too far): to expose oneself to danger

22. P.M.: Prime Minister

23. inch; дюйм (==2,5 см) a unit of length used before decimalisa­tion (десятичная система) was officially introduced in Britain in Feb­ruary 1971