Magnus Merriman by Eric Linklater

Author:Eric Linklater [Eric Linklater]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847675415
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 1990-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Kinluce is an East Coast constituency. Predominantly an agricultural district, it contains two little towns, one of which, called Kingshouse, is the market-town of the surrounding neighbourhood, and has also a few small industrial interests: the other, called Kinlawton, is a health-resort and the home in their retirement of many officers in His Majesty’s service, Civil Servants, and elderly ladies. North of Kinlawton there are several fishing-villages, and on the western border of the county, that abuts on a mining area, there is a fringe of colliers’ hamlets.

The constituency has a reputation for keen thinking and a fierce interest in politics. At this time, however, there was such confusion in the general situation that even the most ardent of political amateurs were handicapped by a certain dubiety as to what their parties stood for. There were many critics, indeed, who maintained that politics had lost reality, and that it was impossible to tell one party from another except by the accent of their speakers: and even this difference was rapidly vanishing owing to the number of wealthy and aristocratic people who, during the Socialist Party’s tenure of power, had announced their conversion to its principles.

The Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Melvin McMaster, had held office for some two years. During that time the policy of his government had travelled so far to the right that now only the most bigoted Tories could discern the red hue of Socialism in its complexion, and not a few people declared that it was more Conservative than the Conservatives. Having completely failed to do what it set out to do it had much in common with all other post-war governments, and so orthodox a record of unachievement had given it a certain dignity. Its prime task had been to reduce unemployment, for the progress of civilization had brought into existence this curious state of affairs: that the world’s work, which used to be of such huge proportions that no one could hope to do all that was required of him, had now so shrunk and dwindled as to be a rare and elusive treasure. Work, that was once a curse to mankind, blinding him with sweat and torturing him with aches and pains, had now become a boon to be sought for and not found. And though the granaries and warehouses of the world were packed full of food and all kinds of commodities—owing to the benign progress of civilization—the world had grown so poor that it could not afford to buy them. Unemployment was therefore not that paradisal state which it might have been had provision been made—in the progress of civilization—for the distribution as well as production of commodities, and all the governments of the world were pledged to reduce it. Some, by methods considered unamiable in this country, had made a partial success of their endeavours, but all British governments had come to the conclusion that unemployment was due to cosmic embarrassments, planetary influence, the delayed invention of contraceptives, God’s providence, and other matters over which they had no control.

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