Chapter 13 in the serialisation of the book 'Insurrection' 4th book in the 'Corpalism' series

13
No man is wise enough by himself.
Plautus

The argument continued unabated; Ken had tried several times to nudge Val out of the Rose Garden and towards the complex; he was feeling frisky and at his age it was important to strike while the iron was hot. Val was resolutely ignoring him; he suspected she was competing with Mags. Quite on what grounds he didn't want to consider; suffice it to say she was in a competition. He zoned out for a while, imagining Val's soft hands on his back, the cooing noises she made as she ministered to his needs. He came back with a bump to Alb's raised voice.

"Zero tolerance, all out."

"Well, you can't do that, Alb," said Val, "it doesn't even make sense." She put up her hand to forestall Gerry, "Yes, I know we talked it out before but my mind is made up."

"Where would you even begin?" asked Mags, "How would you begin?"

"By attacking them," stated Gerry.

"Oh, now that's going to work," said Ken, giving up trying to entice Val away and instead sitting down beside her, "I can see the headlines: 'bunch of old age pensioners attack Muslim youths'."

"We're trained," said Alb, flashing Ken a look of pure dislike, "at least some of us are, and we can still shoot."

"Shoot? You want to shoot them?" gasped Val as Mags made a noise in her throat.

Alb gave them all a severe look, "We've had this conversation already, why so surprised?"

"I thought it was just talk, Alb," said Val, her hand clutched to her throat, consternation evident, "you can't go around shooting people. For one thing, it's not very British."

"Besides which," said Ken, "it would be impossible and anyway, isn't that what Hitler and the Nazis tried to do? Drive out the Jews?"

"That was different," said Alb, "he wanted to conquer the world."

He mooched away towards an adjacent bench, folding himself onto it with some difficulty. It was time for some of his pills but he was damned if he'd break off now. He angled his body away from them, disgruntled at the way the conversation was going.
He'd had high hopes of Val, she was a kindred spirit, or so he'd thought, he was beginning to wonder if he hadn't read her all wrong.

"He invaded Poland and started WWII," said Gerry, determinedly maintaining the argument.

"He didn't exactly start it," said Mags, looking awkward as soon as the words left her lips.

"Of course he did, woman," Alb tossed out irritably, "he was a megalomaniac who wanted to conquer the world, whereas we only want to free our country."

"He might well've wanted to conquer the world," retorted Mags, her annoyance at Alb's rude dismissal was more than apparent, particularly as it had happened in front of Val, "but he certainly didn't start WWII."

"What?"

Gerry was quite put out; people didn't question Alb's grasp of history, gleaned as it was from the reading of hundreds of learned books and watching untold documentaries.

Mags wasn't ready to stop yet, "We went to war with Germany because Neville Chamberlain signed a one sided treaty with Poland that said we would fight to defend her if Germany invaded." She almost said 'so there', so infuriated was she. She was confident in her knowledge since it came from listening to her father, a senior civil servant before the War, a friend of several of the key players. Up until now this had been her very well-kept secret.

"Well, there you go then," said Gerry. Val nodded, confirming what, she was not sure.

Mags continued in a hectoring tone, quite unlike her normal placatory murmurings, "We knew Hitler would demand Danzig and the Polish Corridor back from Poland. It was only fair; they were as German as the other territories we'd already allowed him to take back. It was a treaty that was always destined to lead to war."

"What are you talking about?" said Alb, more than a little piqued, this outburst emanating from comfortable, reliable Mags, the Angel cake maker, after all. He turned back to the group, saying confidently, "Hitler invaded Poland and we went to war to free her."

"Hitler signed his piece of paper with Chamberlain at Munich," said Mags, refusing to budge, ignoring Val's open mouth and Ken's amazed expression, "Chamberlain came home and waved it around declaring 'Peace in our time' and that Herr Hitler would make no further territorial demands even though everyone knew he wanted to take back the Polish corridor, not only that but we also knew he wanted to conquer Russia so he could expand Germany in that direction."

There was a silence following her words, and she sat blinking, not meeting their eyes.

"But he did invade Poland," said Alb hopefully.

"Yes," said Mags, quietly determined, "but we knew he would, he was meant to."

"What?" said Ken, obviously mystified.

"Germany invaded Poland and we went to war with Germany, but then Russia also invaded Poland, just two weeks later, in fact. Did we also go to war against Russia? I think not."

"What are you saying?" said Gerry.

"I'm saying Chamberlain laid a trap for Hitler and he
walked right into it. It wasn't Neville's fault that things didn't quite go as they should've done."

Val nudged Ken, who made a face at her and mouthed 'Neville?' with a shoulders raised gesture.

Mags fell silent. She was annoyed she'd said so much but now she'd started there didn't seem anyway to back out; it was being summarily dismissed by Alb that had done it.

"As I see it, Hitler made Chamberlain look stupid," said Gerry, "Chamberlain was soft on fascists and they took advantage, that's why he had to declare war when Hitler invaded Poland."

"He stalled for time," said Mags, trying to round it up, "kept him strung out as long as possible, when we were strong enough he gave Poland the treaty that he knew would lead to war."

"What're you saying?" demanded Alb, "That Chamberlain started the war?"

"It doesn't make sense." Ken snorted dismissively.

"It makes perfect sense," said Mags, stung again, "Hitler was intent on world domination, but he knew he couldn't do it until he had crushed Russia.
He wanted the wheat fields of the Russian Steppes so that when he eventually went West, he could ensure against a blockade such as that which brought Germany to her knees during WWI," She paused, but only to take a breath, "We couldn't let him crush Russia because after that he would have gone on to conquer the world."

"But if Chamberlain tricked Hitler why would he let the world think he'd been fooled by him?" asked Val, interested despite her irritation that Mags was monopolising both Alb and Ken.

"If he had done anything else the trick would have failed. Don't forget, this wasn't done for his ego, it was done for England, the Empire. It would have worked out quite well if only the bloody French hadn't cocked it up and then we got stuck with that drunk, Churchill."

Gerry had quite forgotten that this was Mags, woman of his dreams, he was now intent only on the argument, and the slander against his hero, crying out, "Churchill saved us, he saved the world."

"Good at speeches," said Mags, abruptly, "bad at strategy, just look at Gallipoli."

"Total bunkum, Mags," Gerry said stoutly.

Mags held her response in check, she knew she'd said too much already, she muttered a half-hearted, "Well, that's what I read somewhere," and with that, tried to sink into the bench.

Alb stared at her, re-evaluating, trying to match the words with the person and failing, saying in a disgusted tone, "Well, that's just leftie rubbish."

"Anyway," said Gerry, now anxious to restore order, "what's it got to do with anything? We're just saying that this is England and we have a right to keep it English."

"You tell me," said Alb, eying Mags coldly, "why every other country has a right to retain its ethnic identity yet we have to become multi-cultural?
Nobody asked us, and I for one, never wanted it to be the case."

"Well, you're right there," said Val, more comfortable now that Mags had fallen silent, "they have foisted it upon us rather, but how can we force people to leave?"

"We'll attack them in the streets," said Gerry.

"But that’s just like the Nazis," said Ken.

"Let's not go there again," said Alb shortly, indicating with his eyes the crestfallen Mags.

"They've been doing it to us," said Gerry, "what with their suicide bombings and all, and don't forget that poor bloke in Woolwich."

"It doesn't matter why you're doing something if the results are the same," Mags muttered, still with her head down.

"Ah," burst out Alb, waving his arms, "it's not just them; it’s the East Europeans, the Pakistanis, the Somalis. There’re too many of them, don't you see?
It doesn't matter if they're blowing us up or not, this is our country, and we have a right to keep it English, to maintain our culture."

"I'm sorry to keep asking the same question, Albie," this from Val, tentatively, Alb's short fuse a known entity, "But how do you make people leave?"

"What's the alternative? Sit and do nothing?"

"Actually the best course of action is to attack the right target," said Mags, standing up briskly and smoothing down her skirt. She had a purposeful look in her eye which was quite at odds with her usual attitude of benevolent cheerfulness. "And that being the case we need to get the facts," she continued, walking away, tossing over her shoulder, "only then can we make a proper assessment."

They stared after her, none of them quite sure what to make of her new persona.

Cheers

Arun








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