Dragon Fire

Downing Street, London

‘We’re going over to Downing Street now, where Anthony Pincher is on the line. This is the Prime Minister’s first interview since news of the Pakistani nuclear attack broke just under six hours ago. Thank you for joining us, Prime Minister. I know you’ve been up all night. We have heard about the terrible Pakistani missile strike on Kashmir. Can you tell us the latest news about that?’

‘Thank you, Michael,’ said Pincher to the early morning presenter on BBC 5 Live radio. ‘That was a tragedy, but thankfully things have moved on, to try to stop more bloodshed. As I speak an operation is underway to prevent any further use by Pakistan of nuclear weapons and, hopefully, force a ceasefire. I can’t say too much about it, but I am convinced that this measure will go a long way to de-escalating the crisis.’

‘Are any British troops involved?’

‘No. Not in this operation.’

‘You’re implying, Prime Minister, that British troops are involved in another operation.’

‘I’m not implying anything, except to say that the task force headed by HMS Ocean currently in the Bay of Bengal has been put on standby should it be needed.’

‘But we are clearly supporting India, then?’

‘As callers to your overnight programme have been pointing out, India is a democracy. We hope it doesn’t come to supporting one side or another, but Great Britain supports democratic rule against any other.’