I had a dream

I had a dream final night time. In it I discovered myself ushered into Number 10 Downing Street, surprisingly as the brand new Prime Minister. I handed a line of women and men respectfully acknowledging me and was proven into an oak-panelled room. As I sat down behind an unlimited desk, an aged gentleman in a wise pin-striped swimsuit closed the door and stood earlier than me, the mannequin of cool, respectful obligation.

‘My activity, Sir, as Senior Secretary, is that will help you settle in.’ The voice was formal and with out heat.

‘Thank you. Is there any coffee?’

‘Greek, Sir. As you like.’ From someplace a cup appeared and I sipped on it.

‘Take some notes,’ I stated.

‘As you would like, Sir,’ stated the secretary, stiffly taking a seat and producing a pad of paper.

‘Now I need to put collectively a cupboard of those that are competent, reliable, smart and have expertise of what they’re to be liable for. And who don’t have any combined motives or agendas.’

A frown crept throughout the secretary’s face however he stated nothing and wrote the phrases down.

‘And I would like them to be sincere with me. To disagree with me when I’m flawed. I need to know the reality.’

‘The fact, Sir?’ The phrase appeared unfamiliar to him.

‘I need to encourage and reward those that work on the frontline in hospitals, faculties, police. I need to set them free from form-filling and the quite a few ranges of administrative paperwork.’

‘You would put plenty of directors out of labor, Sir.’

‘Let them plant bushes.’

Fortified by the coffee I felt I used to be starting to get into the swing of issues. ‘I need to reward individuals who heal folks and who serve the neighborhood. I would like folks to know they matter. And I desire a zero strategy to corruption and dishonesty. Penalties for dishonest the nation. And for distorting the reality or the press fabricating untruths.’

‘If I’d level out, Sir, the prisons are full.’

‘Give them shiny orange uniforms. Put them on the streets cleansing up graffiti and choosing up garbage.’

‘They will not need to do it, Sir.’

‘For on daily basis they work they will have a day diminished from their sentence.

‘And I desire a tradition the place folks need to give issues away, fairly than hold them or accumulate extra.’

There was an ungainly pause. ‘I see, Sir.’

‘Oh, and may we have now a written structure?’

‘You’d want to speak to the King about that, Sir.’

‘I’ll. I additionally need to speak to the leaders of the opposition. Let’s arrange a lunch assembly.’

‘About what, Sir? It’s not customary. They misplaced.’

‘About long-term points. Education, vitality, surroundings, well being care. Seek consensus.’

‘Consensus, Sir?’

‘It’s a Latin phrase. Opposite of battle.’

I sensed a hidden irritation.

‘I need to look into transferring parliament. From London. Put it someplace central – Birmingham. And have a brand new constructing with an arc of seats in order that we do not all sit confronting one another.’

‘Innovative.’

‘Oh, and the bishops.’

‘The bishops?’

‘I need to discover those who do not preach what they’re speculated to uphold. And sack them.’

‘I see.’

I paused. ‘That will do to start out with.’

The Senior Secretary mirrored for a second. ‘If I could say so, Sir, you need to change the nation, do not you?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I simply puzzled, Sir, whether or not maybe . . . simply maybe . . . you is likely to be within the flawed occupation. As Prime Minister, that’s.’

‘Please clarify your self.’

‘Well, Sir, it’s the knowledge of politics to know the boundaries of political energy. Prime ministers seem to direct the nation however, in actuality, they do not change it.’

‘They do not? So who does change the nation? Give me examples.’

‘Well, the basic instance is within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, when those that modified how the nation thought and lived had been the preachers, the evangelists and social reformers. John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, William Booth, Elizabeth Fry and Josephine Butler. Their work did what politics could not do.’

‘What a thought!’ I stated. ‘You’d higher give this job to another person.’

And with that I awoke!