| MARY | I’m so sorry. |
| JULIAN | That’s all right, don’t worry. |
| MARY | Have you been here ages? |
| JULIAN | I got you these. |
| MARY | They’re beautiful. |
| JULIAN | I don’t know what you like. |
| MARY | Thank you very much. |
| JULIAN | I like orange and blue together, I don’t know if you do, I thought of roses but I think roses are a bit dull, I don’t like pink and red very much as colours, I don’t mind yellow but I thought these. |
| MARY | Listen, I’m afraid there’s a problem. |
| JULIAN | Yes. |
| MARY | I’ve made a stupid mistake. |
| JULIAN | Never mind. |
| MARY | No but I’ve made two different arrangements for the same evening, I’ve doublebooked myself, I don’t know how I can be so stupid. |
| JULIAN | So you have to make a phonecall or . . . ? |
| MARY | No, it’s really awful, what I have to do is jump in a cab and go whizzing off. Because I have to be there by half past seven. |
| JULIAN | Something starts at half past seven? |
| MARY | Yes and I couldn’t reach the other person and anyway the tickets and . . . |
| JULIAN | Don’t worry. |
| MARY | It is a concert I particularly . . . |
| JULIAN | Yes of course. We’d better look for a cab. |
| MARY | It was the arrangement I made first you see and somehow it slipped my mind and I thought we might have time for a drink anyway but then I was late finishing work and there was a hold-up on the tube it stopped in the tunnel for about five minutes people were starting to get nervous you could see from the way they kept on reading or just staring into space but deliberately because they were getting nervous and anyway can we make it another time I’m really sorry. |
| JULIAN | Don’t worry. |
| MARY | What about Tuesday? |
| JULIAN | I can’t do Tuesdays. |
| MARY | Or Thursday, no wait I can’t do Thursday, Friday oh shit, the week after, any night you like, not Wednesday. |
| JULIAN | Thursday then. |
| MARY | Thursday week then. |
| JULIAN | Same time same place? |
| MARY | Yes this is good for me. I won’t be late. |
| JULIAN | Don’t worry. There’s a cab. |
| MARY | I’m really sorry. |
| JULIAN | Byebye. |
Pornography and Censorship
| FATHER, MOTHER and MURIEL at dinner. | |
| FATHER | Is Muriel going to eat her dinner? |
| MOTHER | Yes, eat up, Muriel. |
| FATHER | Have a special bite of daddy’s. |
| MOTHER | Yes, eat up, Muriel. |
| FATHER | Muriel, if you don’t eat your dinner you know what’s going to happen to you. |
| MOTHER | Yes, eat up, Muriel. |
The Labour Party’s Slide to the Right