my question as if no one’s ever asked it before. He seems mildly irritated to be pegged down.
‘Researcher, yeah. That’s me.’ And after a period of reflection: ‘Research. Stuff comes in. Sort it. Push it out to the punters. Yeah.’
‘So the daily news, basically?’
‘Yeah. Whatever. Home, foreign, fake.’
‘And corporate, presumably?’ I suggest, recalling his invective against his employers.
‘Yeah. Very corporate mindset indeed. Toe the line or you’re fucked.’
I assume he’s said all he wants to say because he has lapsed again into his own thoughts. But he goes on:
‘Still. Got a couple of years in Germany out of it, didn’t I?’ he says, consoling himself. ‘Loved the country, didn’t like the job a lot. So I came home.’
‘To the same sort of job?’
‘Yeah, well, same shit, different branch really. I thought it might get better.’
‘But it hasn’t.’
‘Not really. Still, stick it out, I suppose. Make the best of it. Yeah.’
And that was the net sum of our exchanges about our respective occupations, which was fine by me and I assume fine by both of us, because I don’t remember either of us ever going there again, however dearly my chers collègues wished to believe otherwise. But I do remember as if it were tonight how abruptly our discussion changed course once we had laid the issue of our occupations to rest.
For a while Ed had been scowling into the middle distance and, judging by his rictal grimaces, debating some weighty matter with himself.
‘Mind if I ask you a question, Nat?’ he enquires in a blurt of sudden resolve.
‘Of course I don’t,’ I say hospitably.
‘Only I respect you quite a lot actually. Although it’s short acquaintance. It doesn’t take long to know a person once you’ve played them.’
‘Go on.’
‘Thank you. I will. It is my considered opinion that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era when the US is heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfuck bar none. And what I’m asking is: do you in broad principle agree with me, or have I offended you and would it be better if I got up and left now? Yes or no?’
Surprised by this unprompted appeal to my political sympathies from a young man I am barely beginning to know, I preserve what Prue calls my decent silence. For a while he stares sightlessly at the people splashing in the pool, then comes back to me.
‘My point being that I would not wish to be sitting here with you under false pretences, given that I have admired your play, and you personally. Brexit is the most important decision facing Britain since 1939, in my opinion. People say 1945 but I’m not at all sure why, frankly. So all I’m asking is, do you agree with me? I know I’m over-earnest. I’ve been told. Plus a lot of people don’t like me because I’m outspoken, which I am.’
‘In the workplace?’ I enquire, still buying time.
‘The workplace is a total washout as regards what I would term free speech. In the workplace it is mandatory to have no strongly held opinion on any subject. Otherwise you’re a leper. It is therefore my policy to keep my mouth firmly shut at all times in the workplace, hence I am regarded as surly. However, I could name to you many other places where people do not like hearing the hard truth, or not from me. Even if such people profess an admiration for Western democracy, they still prefer the easy life as opposed to recognizing their duty as responsible opponents of the encroaching fascist enemy. But I note you have still not answered my question.’
Let me say here and now, precisely as I repeated the same message ad nauseam to my chers collègues, that although the word clusterfuck had not so far entered my vocabulary, Brexit had long been a red rag to me. I am European born and bred, I have French, German, British and Old Russian blood in my veins and am as much at home on the Continent of Europe as I am in Battersea. As to his larger point about the dominance of white supremacists in Trump’s America – well, there too we were not at odds, and neither were many of my chers collègues, however much they might later wish themselves into