The End of the War Against Terrorism

About this episode

The episode explores the unexpected consequences when an unelectable politician is elected and their promises become significant.

Derek Smawk was an easy man to loathe. A squat figure with a pinched face, his track record prior to election had shown him entirely unsuited to the role of a public servant. Lazy, incompetent and a congenital liar, his all-round unattractiveness was matched by a kind of bullish incoherence when he spoke in public, as if he didn't really think his audience merited the effort to make actual sense. He was, if nothing else, an unlikely person ever to be a Prime Minister, lacking as he was in personality or any notable skills. This was his biggest strength as a politician: being unelectable puts a person in a position of absolutely no responsibility at all, enabling them to make all kinds of promises that need never be tested. In this story, we find out what happens when somebody unelectable unexpectedly gets elected, and their promises suddenly become a little bit significant... (It's just a story, of course - this sort of thing could never really happen, could it?)

People in this episode

Host: James Lark

Topics covered

• politics
• satire
• election
• public service
• fiction

Keywords

• Derek Smawk
• Prime Minister
• politician
• election
• public servant
• satire
• war against terrorism

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