‘And once you’ve completed the order, I want you to buy back the same number of shares during the next twenty-one days, but not until you think they’ve bottomed out.’
‘Understood. Just one question, major. Should Benny be placing a little flutter on this particular horse?’
‘That’s up to you, but don’t get greedy, because there’s going to be a lot more where this came from.’
The major put down the phone, walked out of his club on Pall Mall and took a taxi to the Savoy. He joined his fellow directors in the hotel’s conference room just a few minutes before the chairman rose to deliver his annual address to the shareholders of the Barrington Shipping Company.
19
THE CONSTITUTIONAL HALL on Davis Street was packed. Several party members had to stand in the aisle or at the back of the room. One or two were even perched on windowsills in the hope of getting a better view of proceedings.
Both of the candidates on the shortlist, Neville Simpson and Gregory Dunnett, had delivered powerful speeches, but Fisher felt that at that moment Simpson had the edge over his preferred candidate. Simpson, a London barrister, was a few years older than Dunnett, had a fine war record and had already contested an election against Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale, where he’d increased the Tory share of the vote. But Mitchell had been able to supply Fisher with enough information to embarrass the man.
Simpson and Dunnett were seated on either side of the chairman on the stage, while the committee were in the front row. The news that Sir Giles Barrington had survived a vote of no confidence at a closed meeting of the local Labour Party earlier in the week had pleased Fisher, although he didn’t admit his reason to anyone, other than Virginia. He planned to humiliate Barrington publicly, in the glare of a general election campaign, rather than in a dimly lit Labour Party committee room. But his plan couldn’t work unless Dunnett became the Tory candidate, and that was still in the balance.
The chairman rose from his seat and smiled benignly down on the assembled gathering. He gave his trademark cough before addressing the faithful.
‘Before I call for questions, I should like you to know that this will be my last meeting as chairman. I feel the association should go into the general election with both a new candidate and a new chairman, preferably someone a lot younger than me.’ He paused for a moment, to see if anyone would try to talk him out of it, but as no one did, he reluctantly continued.
‘We now enter the final stage of the meeting before we select the man who will fight our cause at the next election. Members will have the opportunity to put their questions directly to the two prospective candidates.’
A tall man leapt up at the back of the hall and began to speak even before Bill Hawkins had called on anyone.
‘Mr Chairman, can I ask both candidates, if they were to win the seat, would they live in the constituency?’
Simpson was the first to respond. ‘I would certainly buy a house in the constituency,’ he said, ‘but I would expect to live in the House of Commons.’
This comment received laughter and a smattering of applause.
‘I took the liberty of visiting an estate agent last week,’ countered Dunnett, ‘not in the anticipation, but in the hope, that you will select me.’
The applause suggested to Fisher that the gathering was fairly evenly divided.
The chairman pointed to a woman in the third row, who never failed to ask a question whenever the association met, so he decided to get her out of the way early.
‘As one of you is a successful barrister, and the other an insurance broker, will you have enough time to devote to this key marginal seat in the run-up to the election?’
‘If I am selected, I won’t be returning to London tonight,’ said Dunnett. ‘I will devote every hour I’m awake to winning this seat and making sure we remove Giles Barrington once and for all.’
This time the applause was prolonged, and Fisher relaxed for the first time.
‘It’s not how many hours you spend,’ said Simpson, ‘but how you spend them that matters. I’ve already fought a general election against a doughty opponent, so I know what to expect. It is important that you select someone who can learn quickly, and can use that knowledge to defeat Giles Barrington and win this seat for the Conservative