The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Sixteen

October the 1st.

The insistent beeping of my alarm rouses me from my alcohol-addled slumber. It's been quite some time since I had such a good session! I'm suffering the after effects of it as well. After washing and shaving in the stainless steel sink I'm feeling a bit less furry mouthed and remote from myself. I'm even feeling hungry so I ask the Zone sprite for its recommendations as to where a good and cheap breakfast may be found. At first it is less than obliging; trying to direct me to a Fair Food. But when I persist it relents and sullenly informs me about a nearby cafe; the one I'd been told about.

I didn't know breakfasts like this were still available: I'd heard tips and rumours of course; but there on my plate is the greasy proof the Connies haven't been able to completely wipe out our traditional cuisine in favour of 'healthy' austerity meals. A hearty cholesterol-filled fried full English breakfast with all the trimmings, and no Health Tax payable or Food Points required within the Zone: Delicious!

The staff have that knowing look about them: Obviously I'm not the first ravenous-eyed Osti they've seen. Once I've washed it down with a couple of mugs of properly strong tea I'm ready for the business of the conference.

In the meeting room I'm not the only one who seems a bit pasty faced and bleary eyed. But there's business to be done so I shake off the lethargy and try to concentrate on the matter in hand. After James' mercifully short welcoming address we break up into the usual mini-symposia related to our specialties. I'm pulled into one about what we can do to counter or at least delay the OMS' latest edicts on increasing the amount of PushCred we're obliged to 'cast. We know the Connies and their stooges in the OMS are trying to undermine any opposition to their rule in the independent media: Forcing us to accept more of their propaganda as news-leading 'public information' items is an insidious way of boring our audience into turning off before they can find out what's really going on. If that doesn't work they can object to our licence renewal in three years time, but we expect that from them in any case.

We're appealing against it of course; even planning to take it as far as Europe if necessary, as we're arguing it impinges on our right to free expression. But the process is grindingly slow; especially when Connie sympathisers in the judiciary drag the hearings out as long as they can in the hope of draining both our finances and resolve. If all else fails we'll just have to ignore the edicts and see how far they'll push it...

At least their plan to try and draw some of our 'Cred away by allowing the BBC (or the Bullshitting Bunch of Connies as we call them) to advertise appears to have flopped; probably because we offer better viewing figures cheaper, but mostly because there isn't that much to advertise these days. Though the thing we'll have to beware of is their push to compete by aiming at - nay, creating - a stupefyingly dumbed down audience. No matter how you sigh at what you see, and wonder how much further standards can slip, there is always further to fall.

Still, at least for the moment we are just about holding our own. We break for another buffet lunch. The afternoon session is a more generalised comparing of notes about how we'll be able to cover current and near future events.

We're aware of a growing increase in low-level civil unrest; largely unreported and unnoticed by the general public as yet due to the OMS' guidelines about what we may report, but there are devious ways of getting around it.

If you want to report an arson attack on a Community Support Office you can't do so directly; for that may be seen to be giving the fire setter the attention they crave, and the fact someone has made an incendiary stand against the assignment system is an inflammatory notion in itself; it might in turn might embolden others to do the same... But you can say services are unavailable from that particular office as a result of a fire: That is a perfectly legitimate Public Service Announcement. Some of our few attentive viewers may recall there have been quite a few fires in Community Support Offices recently and draw their own conclusions. It isn't journalism, but it's the best we can do given the constraints we're working under.