Chapter 1609: A Great Game of Chess

Looking at the aging Chernenko, Mrs. Thatcher knew that if she wanted to deal with the Soviet Union in the long run, she might have to look at who the next generation of Soviet leaders would be, and looking around, a certain scrappy guy with a map printed on his head came into view.

Alan Wilson even showed up with ice cream after completing his tour, leaving Margaret Thatcher and George Bush Sr. uncertain of the two attending British and American heads of state.

“Sir, we are on an official visit.” Mrs. Thatcher’s eyes glanced over the flexible tongue of the Cabinet Secretary and spoke in a serious tone.

“Am I not making a serious visit?” Alan Wilson held up his ice cream and replied with the same seriousness, “The only way to find the Soviet Union’s weaknesses is to physically find out what the purpose of this visit is.”

“Then I wonder what weaknesses Sir has found in the Soviet Union.” Bush Sr. joked, this head of the British civil service was quite an interesting man.

“The fact that the Soviet Union has only one flavor of ice cream is a big takeaway.” Alan Wilson, being a frugal man, still didn’t waste the ice cream he had exchanged rubles to buy, “There are so few choices, it may be that doing so on a planned economy saves a great deal of tedious work, though it leaves the masses with no choice. Although adding various additives to the ice cream is not a smart way, but from the purpose of cheating, the perception is very different. And then there’s the fact that ice cream is so cheap.”

“I don’t know what the real exchange rate of the ruble is now, and which is lower when converted to dollars or American-made ice cream, but I intuitively feel that it’s cheaper than the British product. It was not a good idea for the USSR, a frigid country, to keep the cost of food so low.”

Not only was Mrs. Thatcher not convinced, she even felt that the Cabinet Secretary in front of her was blackmailing Britain, meaning was it that British prices were too high?

This meaning is certainly there, but Alan Wilson’s main purpose is still factual, unilateral elaboration of their own perception is just, if the prime minister feels that it is in the black her, then why not reflect on it? Was there not, in some way, a failure to govern?

Mrs. Thatcher is still from the macro level to the old Bush to tell their own gains, “I think, now the Soviet Union among the top, the younger two members, will be the future leader of the Soviet Union.”

Bush Sr. was just about to say, Alan Wilson first spoke up, “This is the same as Mr. Bush will run for president in the future, it’s all a high probability, and it’s a great gain?”

“Sir, it’s hard to say what the future holds.” It wasn’t that Bush Sr. didn’t have this idea, but he was now the Vice President, and with President Reagan’s approval ratings still so high, he couldn’t say that he had this idea.

A little later in time, when there were just two people left, Alan Wilson inquired who Mrs. Thatcher was talking about, and when he heard it was Maplehead, the contempt in his eyes flickered but he didn’t say anything.

The truth was that until the moment of the collapse of the Soviet Union happened, the free world, as an enemy for decades, could not believe that there was such stupidity in the world. In a matter of a few years it had caused a sharp turnaround, and the British Empire, while it had collapsed completely enough after the war, had struggled for over twenty years before throwing up its hands in the seventies.

“What are you thinking? Do you know the young commissioner?” Mrs. Thatcher inquired curiously when she saw that Alan Wilson was silent.

“No. Ask Chernenko if he knows the Mayor of Birmingham.” Alan Wilson paused for a moment and turned his words around, “I couldn’t possibly know any of the previous campus Conservative Party chairmen either could I?”

“You?” Mrs. Thatcher was anxious for a moment, but there was nothing concrete to act on yet, and Alan Wilson’s cold gaze swept over, leaving the notorious Iron Lady confused for a moment.

Unsurpassed authority hands in pockets, thinking for a moment to leave a back to the female prime minister said, “For the time being, some economists believe that the Soviet Union has a temporary difficulty, the same way we also have a temporary difficulty, it depends on which one of us first to overcome the temporary difficulty, will be able to take the lead in the next confrontation.”

“I will defeat the trade unions and rejuvenate Britain’s economy.” Mrs. Thatcher did not sound as if she was making an order, but as if she was trying to convince the man in front of her to believe in herself.

“There is a volume gap between Britain and the U.S.S.R., a gap that cannot normally be bridged.”

Allen Wilson made his narration in a neutral tone, unless the Soviet Union’s surrender resulted in stilling the United States to the side and surrendering to Britain alone, who would integrate the Soviet Union’s physical power?

A thoughtful look flashed in Allen Wilson’s eyes at the thought, and who’s to say it couldn’t? He and the son of the Culture Czar have now made it to the General Directorate.

May be able to play a key role in critical moments, the great emperor at this time is only a small, literal sense of the purges workers, his good eldest son has been considered a senior security cadres.

Compared to his good oldest son, what kind of young strong man is Map Head, who is already in his early fifties? The real young and strong are the sons of the Culture Czar. Can’t the son of a tsar be a leader? Who says so?

After attending Andropov’s funeral, Mrs. Thatcher apparently still because of the Cabinet Secretary’s cold glance temper, ride back to the special plane also did not speak.

“I’m not Mr. Thatcher, and I shouldn’t have to endure a woman’s cold shoulder on principle.” Alan Wilson opened his mouth to accuse, “As a prime minister, you are very unprofessional.”

“You’ve never treated me like a Prime Minister, you don’t respect me.” Margaret Thatcher chattered and complained, “You also arranged for my son, Mark, to be involved in arms sales with the Saudis.”

“What’s wrong with that? Doesn’t a man need wealth to prove his excellence? I’m treating him as my own son, except for my two sons, I’ve never been this kind to the Crown Prince.” Alan Wilson opened his mouth with meaning, equally conspiratorial, “If it wasn’t for your cold attitude towards me, we wouldn’t have had to come to today’s result between us.”

And this is blaming me? Mrs. Thatcher face indignation, come to today is not you have no responsibility at all? Obviously can be water to the end, but had to get on the car first, and afterwards there is no sincerity.

Just when a pile of old stories, will be the time of the world, the tower of London International Airport, so that the two mainstays of the United Kingdom, the national pillar in the critical point of the brakes, not on who should take the initiative to bow down to the matter of the argument goes on.

After getting off the plane, Alan Wilson took the initiative and said, “I’m going to talk to the coal unions, and it would be great if we could defuse the strike discussion, make it invisible, and not have a widely publicized confrontation. But if the coal unions don’t appreciate it, it’s not our fault.”

“That’s as good as it gets, naturally.” Mrs. Thatcher, rarely so feminine, said, “Strikes are a disservice to the country in any case, and if there’s really no way out of it, it’s important at the outset to make the coal unions understand that they can never win.”

Truth to tell, the government’s aim was not to be in a position to retain the almost unprofitable mining industry, of which coal was but a representative.

To this end, it has also made sufficient preparations, coupled with the cooperation with the Saudi side on top of energy, the possibility of victory for the coal unions is about equal to none, having lost to Margaret Thatcher in history, and it is even more unlikely that they will win the couples’ store now.

According to MI5’s reliable sources lurking in the headquarters of the coal union, the coal union is expected to start striking in March, Alan Wilson returned to London, then proceeded to contact the coal union, on behalf of the government to express the goodwill for the last time, if the strike can not be prevented by this clear-cut card, the government can also use this to show that it has already been merciful to the end of the road.

Arthur Scargill, the leader of the coal union, was asked to discuss with Alan Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary, the advantages and disadvantages of mining for the country, a conversation that was followed by the BBC.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Thatcher was confronted with the news that the former Industry Secretary’s criminal conduct had been taken up by the Metropolitan Police, which the Prime Minister took as a sign of contempt for herself, and did not rule out the possibility that there were those who wished to embarrass her by hitting out at her loyal supporters.

From Arthur Scargill’s point of view, the Thatcher government was full of malice, and last year decided to close twenty of the country’s one hundred and seventy-five coal mines in view of the fact that they were not only unprofitable, but were costing the government huge sums of money, and were making heavy losses.

The closure of these mines involved the unemployment of some 20 000 miners, and although the Government said that these miners would be properly rehoused, there was no follow-up action by the Government after this.

Promising well and not doing it in the end, Alan Wilson knew that this was the norm, and that Margaret Thatcher did have a bit of a mind to kill or bury in the midst of privatization, taking the savings in public spending and ultimately handing them out as unemployment benefits.

“First of all I would like to express my heartfelt admiration for Mr. Arthur’s concern for the unemployed miners. My admiration is absolutely genuine, the miners just want a job, they are not on unemployment benefits doing nothing, Britain is lucky to have such workers in the country.”

Alan Wilson slowed down his attitude and then changed his tune, “But the government has its own considerations in outlawing coal mining. All in all it’s a big game.”

There was a time when Alan Wilson, a fart, hated the rhetoric of the Great Chess Party, but being in this position, he also had to take this argument.

“Is the Cabinet Secretary trying to say that the kind of service industry the Prime Minister is talking about?” Arthur Scargill asked rhetorically with a sneer, clearly not a fan of the so-called service industry.

“Of course not, but the reconstruction and upgrading of manufacturing.” Alan Wilson straightened his back and said, “Communication network construction, high-end manufacturing industry, workers are not only called workers because there are miners, workers in other industries are not only more decent, but also more lucrative. In looking at the working environment of coal miners, no matter what methods we use to protect, the working environment of coal mines is dangerous.”