Resistance

Resistance is Owen Sheers’ first novel, published in 1999. Whether his MA from the University of East Anglia in Creative Writing was helpful is debatable. Teaching Creative Writing is oxymoronic – omit first three letters if you wish.

Two readers here have sent me their good short stories written without the assistance of formal training in the genre. To digress, one sent us a Christmas card. Resistance is in a genre called “alternative history”. Sheers may have taken inspiration from Len Deighton’s 1978 novel, SS-GB. Resistance supposes a contingent of victorious Nazi soldiers are garrisoning a valley in Wales.

This is the Senedd in Cardiff. If you are unaware, it’s where Welsh windbags meet to pick up their wages. Since 2016 Wales is governed by Welsh Labour with Welsh Conservatives in opposition. Ten of the sixty members represent Plaid Cymru, a homely name that sounds like a Welsh tartan. Astonishingly eleven members represent Welsh Conservatives. Why, when you could suckle at the EU teat, would you vote Conservative? The ruling party’s leader will be only too familiar to you: Mark Drakeford, a Welsh windbag with more capacity than a biggish hot air balloon. You may disagree and, not wanting to offend you, I will get back to Resistance.

There are two doughty members of the Senedd. Why aren’t members called Senators? Maybe it doesn’t work in Welsh. First my belief in democracy is much heartened by the election of Gareth Bennett, leader and sole representative of Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party; he’d get my vote. Politics is a dirty business; he was leader of UKIP in Wales – the last bastion of resistance. Now, veteran politician, Neil Hamilton, leads UKIP in Wales. Like his erstwhile colleague Gareth Bennett, he has no other members to support him, although his wife is a capable prop. Perhaps the Parliamentary Allowances are higher if you lead your “party”?

Who leads England? Why isn’t there an English Prime Minister? Germany has regional Prime Ministers, why not the UK? It is a cunning ploy to elect regional mayors in England deflecting the obvious call for a political leader of England. Now I must go up, up and away …