God's Loving Embrace

Part Eleven

'And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient...'

2 Timothy 2:24

"Hello and welcome to another live debate into the moral issues facing us today in the moral maze on Radio Four. My name is Christina Blair and I am joined today by Sir Harry Trevor, Christian Democrat Minister for Health and Education, and an enthusiastic member of the Christian Reformist Church, and Germaine Greening, a journalist with The Guardian newspaper and a regular campaigner on issues concerning women and women's rights around the world...welcome to you both."

"Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me." Harry said, his smile coming over the radio, loud and clear. Brogan felt herself attempt to smile back, but she was muzzled and no one could see her face anyway. Miss Howard had allowed her to listen to the broadcast, but they were still having another quiet afternoon at home.

"Surely you have made it illegal for the BBC to have any sort of debate on your policies without an immediate right of reply Sir Harry?" Ms Greening's familiarly strident tones cut in, and Brogan would have laughed if she could. She knew Germaine. In the old days. In fact she had been a bit of a role model for Brogan in some ways, when she first started out in journalism, a strident supporter of women's rights. Brogan wondered what the formidable Ms Greening would say if she knew who Harry Trevor's dutiful wife really was. "I am sure that the BBC would have suffered terribly if you had not been invited to put your case?"

"Only if you are involved, Germaine...we like to make sure you get your facts right, and provide a little sane reason and balance on such occasions...to maintain at least an illusion of fairness and impartiality." Harry quipped back, still smiling, before Christina Blair tried to regain control of the proceedings.

"I can see today's programme is going to be a rather lively one...Sir Harry, you are part of a government that is accused of setting back women's rights a hundred years, so what have you got to say for yourself in your defence? Can you summarise the arguments for us?"

"On the contrary Christina, I believe that we have given women back the basic right to be a wife and mother. The hundred years you refer to is basically the twentieth century and during that traumatic period in world history women were fooled into thinking that they wanted to break into a man's world, and that it was a good thing...economically, socially and morally it was not...all we are trying to do is redress the balance."

"By gagging them and covering them up?"

"Germaine, I certainly believe that voice modesty is appropriate, in certain situations...but only for those who share my religious convictions. We have not attempted to pass any laws requiring it of everyone, and neither do we ever intend to do so. Many Muslim leaders have similar beliefs but they do not demand that every Muslim female wears the burka. Decency laws have been passed by our government, but it is still up to personal conscience how far any individual follows the word of God...or are you trying to restrict our rights to worship as we please?"

"Yes I am, I most certainly am...I am against religions that repress women, and force them to dress or behave in any way they don't want to, and your government is merely a front for Christian fanatics, worse than any Muslim extremists." Germaine Greening almost barked into the microphone. Brogan shook her head, in annoyance. Putting someone like her up against Harry was a clear recipe for disaster. He was cool, calm and collected, and she was passionate, shrill and a committed socialist, which was almost a crime in the current political climate. Brogan feared he would eat her alive.

"Christian democracy is about curing this country of decades of mismanagement and unregulated social change...that is why people have voted for us in their millions. I think I can speak for most of my colleagues when I say we are tired of this extremist tag we are given all the time. It is not as if we lied to the voters, and did something that took everyone by some sort of surprise. We published our manifesto, explained it, and people chose us over people like you and your quasi-communist friends Germaine. And the results are there for everyone to see. Male unemployment is almost nil and the vast majority of young men can leave school with the expectations of further education, proper apprenticeships, and then a proper job...if not, they go into the armed forces on national service and get their training there. Our schools have been transformed in the last five years or so, and again, the results are there for all to see...and our health service is thriving again...people really don't care what I believe as long as we produce results. It is only a minority of left-wing activists...far too often given a huge platform by this corporation I might add...who continually protest...because this is what the majority of people in this country voted for."