Loyalty

Sarah Helm

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781849432092
• eBook ISBN: 9781849437240
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

'I felt I should say congratulations on winning the election but I couldn't find the words...There were suddenly three of us in our relationship.' In the weeks leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the pressure on the UK government to commit to joining the American cause was escalating. And in one Stockwell household the pressure had completely erased the line between the political and the personal – the home of Laura and her husband Nick…Tony Blair's Chief of Staff. With the crisis coming to a head, Nick and Laura struggle to protect their relationship as Nick attempts to guide Tony Blair through one of the greatest controversies of our time.

Act Two

SCENE ONE

The Stockwell bedroom September 2004.

LAURA and NICK are asleep in bed. A radio alarm goes off and the Today programme starts. It is 6.30am. A child starts shouting from offstage. A tricycle lies on its side by the door.

NICK gets up and goes out to take a shower. We hear the shower start up.

The phone by the bed goes. She turns over and looks at the clock. Ignores it. It stops ringing after four rings. She opens her eyes, suggesting she knows something we don’t.

A mobile phone on the chest of drawers then immediately starts ringing in a different ringtone. That also stops after precisely four rings. A Blackberry next to the mobile then immediately and insistently starts buzzing and jumping around.

The sound of the Today programme continues in the background.

RADIO NEWS ANNOUNCER: Eighteen months after the start of the war in Iraq, investigators in Iraq are understood to have completed their inquiries into Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, and will announce that no significant traces of WMD have been found. If confirmed, the news will cause alarm in Washington and London where government sources continue to insist that Saddam’s WMD were a justification for going to war.
According to leaks of the ISG report, the comprehensive 15-month search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has concluded that the only chemical or biological agents that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed were small quantities of poisons, most likely for use in assassinations.
The report is also believed to conclude that that there was evidence to suggest the Iraqi regime planned to restart its illegal weapons programmes if UN sanctions were lifted.

LAURA sits up and shouts from the bedroom to the bathroom.

LAURA: It’s Switch.

The Blackberry falls silent.

NICK: (Shouting from under the shower.) Tell them to wait.

LAURA: Tell them yourself.

ED: (The Today programme presenter on radio.) So Foreign Secretary this was an illegal war wasn’t it? We now know there was no threat to this country. And now we’re hearing that the Iraq Survey Group is going to say there were no weapons of mass destruction. All stockpiles had been destroyed after the first Gulf War…

JACK: Look Ed. Let’s wait for the Iraq Survey Group to report. It would be premature to anticipate the ISG findings but we are confident that there was every reason to suppose at that juncture that Saddam had at least the intent and the potential capacity to put into operation within a period of time which could have been a period threatening to us not only in relation to CW but also BW as well. And don’t forget, Ed, as many people have, and do, that tests on SPMCs, though at a very early stage of development, had shown – indeed proven – that if combined in a missile, could have had a range of up to 2000 kilometres with a 500k payload which would…

LAURA sits up. Looks at clock again. Doorbell rings again. She gets out of bed and picks up an intercom phone on the wall. Looks at it.

LAURA: Decorators. Who told them to start this early?

ED: You’ve seen the ISG draft have you?

NICK re-enters in towel and switches off the radio.

NICK: Course he hasn’t seen a draft.

Phones start ringing in turn again. First the landline, four times, then the mobile jingle four times. NICK is just about to pick it up when it stops. He holds his hand over the Blackberry and catches it on first ring.

NICK: Hi. (To TONY in his relaxed Downing Street-I’m-speaking-to-TONY kind of ‘Hi’.)

I’m in my bedroom.
No, not exactly.

He looks at LAURA and the intercom.

Because I was in the shower, if you must know. Now I’m in the bedroom. Getting dressed.
No. I have not yet had breakfast. Yes. I have seen the ISG draft report. I’m the one who put it in your box last night, as you know. With a note.
I agree it doesn’t look good. But did you read my line-to-take note?

Walks back to the bathroom looking at LAURA holding the towel and the phone. Then he stops, suddenly, on the way.

No. Look. One thing at a time. We mustn’t panic. OK so it’s bad. The headlines will be appalling. But it depends a bit how you read it. I mean some of it’s actually quite helpful to us.
Of finding them now? Err no.
No it isn’t.

(Raising his voice a little.) We have got some time. It’s not being published for at least two weeks. We have a firm agreement with Washington on that. Let’s look and see what we can salvage from it.

Then into the bathroom and out again.

Stops in his tracks again.

No you are not going to have to resign.

Stuffs a tie in his pocket. Pulls on trainers. Stuffs another tie in the other pocket and pulls one out that’s already in there.

Look, let’s – keep calm. No it isn’t. There’s a paragraph about SPMCs we can use.
Solid Propellant Motor Cases.
Yes but the fact is that we weren’t the only ones to believe the intelligence.

LAURA looks towards NICK suddenly.

What we have to remember and make sure everyone is aware of is that the whole world believed it. CIA, MOSSAD, BND, DGSE – yes, even the French. Everyone knew he had them. At that time they all knew it. It was clear.
Ok. Not true, perhaps. But clear. Certainly. That has to be the line to get out.

LAURA now shaking her head.

Well, it may be the only line we have. And it’s a good one.
They all believed it. And let’s not forget that Parliament believed it too. Because they all believed you. Believe me.

LAURA is now standing in pyjamas by his side trying to hear. He waves her away and puts a finger on one ear.

You know how these things are. Just hold on. Chances are it won’t be that big a story on the day. Put up a safe pair of hands. We’ve still got strategic intent to fall back on. You’ll see that in the briefing paper.
I don’t know. God no. He’s going in the reshuffle isn’t he?

Listens, signalling to LAURA, pointing to the wardrobe. He needs a shirt. She pulls a neatly ironed one off a hanger and he screws it up and stuffs it in a rucksack with his spare hand, still balancing the phone. He signals to LAURA to bring over a red box. She heaves it over and he takes out a massive pile of documents and stuffs them into his rucksack on top of his shirt. ‘Mummy, Mummy,’ is heard from outside and a loud bang.

LAURA: Wait I’m coming.

She goes out. Heard shouting outside the door.

Marisia? Are you there? Please? Marisia?

NICK goes into the bathroom, phone still at his ear.

NICK: Sorry. I didn’t hear that.

LAURA comes back into the room and MARISIA appears at the door in pyjamas holding a teddy bear and a sandwich box. Gives the box to LAURA who stuffs it in the ru...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Forward
• Contents
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two