SECTION EIGHT:
The first town we drove through in Yorkshire was plastered with BIP posters, many of them as large as one would expect in the DPRK rather than a rural English backwater. The frown on my face must have been noticeable, because Francois turned to me with a grim smile and said;
"They just finished up a by-election here, I think. Needless to say the BIP won..." There was silence in the car as one of my security personnel flicked on the locks for the doors. I really wished the two little European Flags on the front of the car weren't there, and cautiously removed the one pinned to my lapel.
Driving through the town we passed a clearly homemade sign which simply said "Throw out the Eurocrat leeches from Brussels". As one of the aforementioned leeches, I couldn't help but feel I would be more than happy to be thrown out of such a place. We drove on, getting a few hostile looks from passersby, one of whom even made a gesture which doesn't bare describing in an official report such as this one. The town truly had been painted purple, but then so had much of Yorkshire... and much of the north... some expected that the Yorkshire Assembly would see the BIP thrown into opposition at the next set of elections, with the Conservatives wildly unpopular in spite of the fact they had been led, for a long time, by a Yorkshireman.
The whole place had sent a shudder down my spine. More than anything this place showed me the British Peoples' dissatisfaction with the European Union... these were the people who the President had told me about - the white working class who felt squeezed out in their own country. It often troubled me how much the President seemed to side with their sentiments...
~~~
The sky was grey and fine, cold, rain was falling from the sky as we arrived in the centre of Yorkshire's capital. Ms. Cooper met us outside the Assembly building, a fake smile on her face and an aide holding an umbrella over her. She waved and the two of them slowly walked down the steps to meet me as Francois and I got out of the car. Yorkshire's own Iron Lady was far taller in person than I had initially expected her to be.
"Its a pleasure to meet you Mister Ambassador!" She called out as I got within ear distance of her.
"And you ma'am." I returned. She smiled at me stiffly, and then she and her aide led me inside.
The Yorkshire Assembly Building was a nasty modern thing, all stark concrete and strangely cut glass, designed by a London architect whose ideas ran quite antithetically to those espoused by the Labour government which it housed. The Yorkshire Assembly, almost wholly dominated by Labour, liked to present itself as a bastion of a new kind of "Consensus Building Politics" where party labels didn't matter... in practice that just meant that the Labour Party in the region was so riven with infighting as to virtually be two (or perhaps three) separate Assembly Caucuses effectively in coalition.
Cooper was quiet for the rest of the long walk to her office, but then she had a reputation for being stern... she was modelling herself off Thatcher, some said, not that it was a legacy which one necessarily wanted to emulate. Yvette Cooper, former Home Secretary now plotting in her Northern Fief, was an enigma. When we arrived at her office there was no pretense of making me wait, for which I was grateful, and we went straight in to begin our discussion.
"Ok, we'd better get down to business, hadn't we." She said matter of factly.
"Yes we had." I started recording.
"Yvette Cooper, First Secretary of the Yorkshire Assembly, Yorkshire's place in the federal system."
"Thank you for this interview First Secretary," I began, "Now, since Yorkshire has a somewhat unusual place in the federal system, please could you explain how it works?"
"Of course. Yorkshire is a devolved region within the Northern Devolved Region, with its own controls over taxation, environmental policy, and a fully independent police force. We are able to dictate some aspects of our own social policy - we allowed gay marriage two years before it was legalised in then Northern Region, and one before it was legalised in England." She said. She sounded proud... was she bragging?
"Do you think, therefore, that Yortkshire should become its own independent region."
"Absolutely." Her reply was unflinching, not even a flicker in her eyes as she spoke, "It was a mistake made by cold Westminster bureaucrats that the entire North was made one region." Might that, perhaps, have been part of a pitch to amass support from the large cadre of Yorkshire Delegates at Labour's annual federal convention? There were rumours she was angling for the leadership, after all.
"Thank you Miss Cooper." She winced at the use of "Miss", "Do you believe in the further federalisation of British political parties?"
"Yes, without a doubt." She replied, "The London Party is simply out of tune with the rest of the party across the country, and for too long their stranglehold over the leadership and party policy has led to unelectable left wing leaders."
"You refer, of course, to your current party leader?"
"Yes of course. I happily served as Home Secretary under David and was offered the position again from John." She paused for a moment and then, eyes like steel, said "I wouldn't even countenance serving under John."
"For a final question, do you think that the British Federal model would be applicable for the European Union's projected future integrations?"
"Absolutely, I think a tailored federal model where everyone gets their say and the bespoke amount of aid and autonomy is provided for all is the right path for Europe." She smiled at the chance to show off her Europhile credentials.
"Thank you Miss cooper." I ended the recording, we exchanged a few forced pleasantries, and then I left.
~~~
As I stood on the rain drenched steps and checked my phone I saw a single message from the President.
Get to Edinburgh, ASAP.