two bloody windmills. Clinging to each other by the third round.’
‘Did you win?’
Blaylock affected a visor-eyed look of affront. ‘Of course, Andy. Points decision, like. I’d say there was marginally more blood streaming out of his nose than mine. I got back in the dressing room and the other lads – bastards – they just shook their heads and said, “Bloody fluke”.’
‘And after all the guidance they’d given you.’
‘Exactly. I did learn a fair bit, though, just from that one bout.’
‘Such as?’
‘Such as how to get yourself braced and ready for someone running up to give you a massive clout.’
‘That is a good lesson, boss.’
‘Aye. And remains so.’
It was good to josh, in Blaylock’s view, though he knew he had to keep watch on the rougher things that amused him. He hadbeen told so by the Prime Minister. ‘David, not everything in life is a fight. And not every fight is necessary.’ He accepted the critique – and yet resisted it, too, feeling an urge to push back. At times his basic view was that the way he carried himself, all things considered, was a net-positive to the people he served, and that his critics on the touchline – the bystanders who grab megaphones and make some noise, all the Twitterers and the gobshites – they could take it and shove it.
He knew, nonetheless, what Paddy Vaughan meant. Others closer to him had made similar observations, with far less forbearance.
As the conversation ebbed in the car Blaylock’s ears tuned in to the Today programme on the radio, where news anchor Laura Hampshire was quizzing someone on the topic of Ziad al-Kasser.
‘ … Is it not the case that Mr al-Kasser argues for independent Muslim emirates within the UK where sharia is law?’
‘That is so, and if you are a Muslim in Bradford or Dewsbury or Tower Hamlets then sharia is what you should want …’
Blaylock recognised the debating tones of the self-styled Abou Jabirman, né Desmond Ricketts, a former plasterer known to old friends as ‘Snowy’ – a Jamaican-British Muslim convert with a criminal record, now oft heard expounding in the media on matters of church and state.
‘… and in fact sharia is what a big, big part of our community does want and is comfortable with. So that wish should be considered legitimate and not to be, ah, interfered with or, ah, demonised .’
‘Yes, but do all Muslims in Bradford – even anywhere in the UK – do many Muslims consider, as Mr al-Kasser appears to, that women must accept Allah made them inferior, and that thieves should have their hands cut off?’
‘Well, you put things in your own words and out of their contexts but if you read the actual sermons of Ziad al-Kasser …’
Blaylock had already fished in the strongbox for a pen and a torn envelope, and now began to scribble notes for a letter to the BBC’s Head of News. Still, he overheard the next item – a report from the annual Chief Police Officers Conference, where Lancashire’s top cop was complaining of government cuts to their budgets.
‘They’re coming too thick and too fast. Just on my patch, month to month, thefts are up, burglary’s up, car crime and shoplifting up. So the government need to realise—’
Laura Hampshire cut in coolly. ‘I’m afraid, Chief Constable, I must stop you there, because Daniel Manningham is in south London for us, and we have reports coming in that the Home Secretary David Blaylock has been involved in a police incident near to his home in Kennington, an incident, I believe – is this right, Daniel? – in which Mr Blaylock helped to apprehend a criminal suspect?’
‘Yes, as we understand it, Laura, just before 6.30 a.m. police were called to this street by David Blaylock’s Scotland Yard protection team and bystanders have confirmed …’
Blaylock’s phone trilled and he checked the caller ID – Becky Maynard from his press office.
‘Good morning, Becky.’
‘Home Secretary, good morning, my god,
Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child