Dr Berlin Read Online Free PDF Page B

regime is a paradox, Marion, and as you know better than most, having attended my lectures when you were an undergraduate, paradox became a casualty of Soviet society in 1917 along with irony, compassion, freedom of expression, truth and so many other attributes of the civilised world that Lenin took exception to. Bill’s got it right for once. Berlin is as much a part of that obnoxious regime as the head of the KGB or the governor of one of their slave camps. Why should we invite a spokesman for a political system we openly condemn and provide him with a platform to preach Bolshevism to our impressionable young? It’s asking for trouble.’
    Her scheme was disintegrating before her eyes. It wasn’t difficult to do the mathematics. Two definite votes against. She had to get Bill to change his mind or her position was desperate. Her candidate would be voted out.
    ‘You’re keeping your counsel close to your chest, Peter,’ the chairman said, turning to Peter Chadwick. ‘Where do you stand on this issue?’
    Chadwick drained his cup of tea with a theatrical gesture. She didn’t know him well enough to be sure of his support. He was an elusive man, a medievalist, with a couple of good books to his name. Their paths had hardly crossed. Where he stood on the Berlin issue was hard to predict.
    ‘Michael’s theory about contaminating the young doesn’t hold water for a moment,’ Chadwick replied dismissively. ‘I think we can trust our pupils to know their own minds and judge Berlin accordingly.’
    He was on her side. She could have kissed him for it. Michael Scott was furious. He leaned across the table in his anxiety to put Chadwick right.
    ‘If you’d been at this university as many years as I have, Peter, you wouldn’t fall into the trap of making a generalisation that can be so easily refuted. The point to remember about the young is that that is precisely what they are. To be young is by definition to lack judgement. Take them too close to the fire and they will always burn themselves.’
    ‘Marion’s position is valid, Michael,’ Chadwick replied. Beneath his unemotional demeanour, she sensed his deep dislike of Scott. ‘We must either have a speaker who’ll put the Blake-Thomas lectures back on their feet, or we must drop this event from the university calendar, dissolve this committee and call it a day. Berlin’s a courageous choice and I commend Marion for proposing him. I don’t agree with his ideas but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be heard. Surely we’re all strong enough to cope with a challenge to our beliefs, particularly from a Marxist historian? You make it sound as if we’d crumble after a paragraph, Michael. I can only assume you’re being mischievous.’
    ‘Bill?’ The chairman turned to Gant. Marion could tell from Gant’s expression that he hadn’t been swayed by Chadwick’s arguments. Her heart sank.
    ‘Nothing I’ve heard makes me want to change my mind,’ Gant said nervously.
    ‘I think we know where you stand, Michael.’
    ‘I’ve said all I need to say, Chairman.’
    They were split down the middle. Two for, two against. The casting vote would go to Eastman as chairman. This was an outcome she hadn’t banked on. Well, if you’re going to go down, better to go down fighting.
    ‘Andrei Berlin would be a splendid choice,’ she said, addressing her remarks to Professor Eastman. ‘Michael and Bill are showing a great lack of imagination. I think we’d find undergraduates queuing all the way up Mill Lane to get in to hear him. Why not create a little controversy for once? Why not challenge a few beliefs? Where’s the harm in that? Perhaps some of us have become too comfortable in our habits of thought’ – this looking at Michael Scott – ‘and a bit of stirring up might be good for the system.’
    Bill wouldn’t like that, but so what? She’d show him she wasn’t going to be crushed by the reactionary opinions of men like Michael Scott.
    ‘Marion’s