Four Months
Ariana followed to a producer's room where Sarah was visible through glass windows. When Sarah was ready, she beckoned Ariana who opened the soundproof door to enter the studio.
"Good morning Ariana; it's good to see you."
"Good morning Sarah."
"Please, take a seat and we'll start in a moment."
Ariana sat opposite Sarah and slipped headphones on to hear music. When the song came to an end, Sarah pointed.
"That was Feel by Robbie Williams and now I have our member for Derby South, Ariana Ahmadi, just returned from Westminster. Ariana, it's good to have you here."
"Thank you for having me, Sarah."
"What can you tell our listeners about issues from Westminster that affects them?"
"I have much to tell. In response to concerns about proposed changes to the Winter Fuel Allowance, the government agreed to my proposal to form a committee to report on this issue. I promise I will use feedback that I and members of my staff have received, and I'm hopeful we can achieve an outcome that meets the needs of private pensioners while not jeopardising our need to deal with the dreadful budget deficit we inherited."
"Surely you can't do both?"
"What we can do is devise a scheme that gives some of the budget savings that were originally forecast, without harming the interests of those at the lower end of the income threshold. I can't pre-empt the outcome of this committee but I'm hopeful we can achieve a fair compromise."
"I hope you can. For those younger, I'm sure many will be worried about freezing tax thresholds until 2028."
"The budget crisis we inherited doesn't allow us to index tax thresholds until our economic plans take effect and we can begin to grow the economy, because every pound we're borrowing has to be paid back with interest, which means there's less we can spend on things that matter. In other words, there will be some short-term pain and I understand this, but we are looking at a brighter future."
"This doesn't help people in Derby doing life tough at the moment."
"I know, Sarah, and I wish I could say more than we inherited a crisis resulting from 14 years of economic mismanagement and it will take some time to get ahead of this, but sadly this is where we are, right now in July 2024."
"Now, a partial arms embargo to Israel or full sanctions – what's your position?"
"I believe our limiting of arms sales to Israel achieves a good compromise between avoiding the possibility of UK-produced arms being used to violate international law, without compromising Israel's ability to defend itself."
"As someone of the Muslim faith, how do you personally feel about this issue?"
"I, like people of all faiths or no faith, was concerned that UK-produced arms could be used to violate international law, so I was pleased when we acted to prevent this from happening."
Sarah smiled at Ariana repeating Labour's talking point with different wording. "I understand. What else can you tell our listeners?"
"I have one other thing. I'm interested in people's views on the advertising and promotion of gambling, including sports betting apps, so I've put a survey on my website, and I'm asking those who are interested to spend a few minutes to complete my survey, so I can get a feel for how our community feels about gambling advertising and promotions."
"This is an important matter."
"I believe this might be important, which is why I designed my survey."
"Is there anything else, Ariana?"
"Nothing else, other than thank you, Sarah, for having me this morning."
"Thank you for your time, Ariana."
Sarah introduced the next song while Ariana took her headphones off.
"Do you ever stop?" Sarah asked.
"This is my job and I love it!"
"Thank you for this morning."
"Really, thank you for having me."
Ariana grabbed her attache and headed out to walk to Cornmarket and her favourite Book Cafe and went to the counter.
"Good morning Ariana – I listened to your interview on the way in."
"Ah, good. I'll have eggs and shrooms and a flat white please."
"This won't take long."
Ariana took a seat and shortly after had breakfast, not too filling as she preferred. After paying, Ariana crossed to her office.
"Good morning Ariana!" Priya greeted. "I listened to you on the way in!"
"That's good. Good morning Dev and Emma."
"Good morning."
"Yes, good morning."
"Priya, Trevor White from Derbyshire Live will be here around ten to see me."
Ariana went to her office and slumped into her chair, somewhat overwhelmed. The break was wonderful but there were so many issues in play. After mentally recovering, Ariana poured two glasses of water, and shortly after, Trevor arrived for his interview – same questions and same answers.
"Off the record, surely more pressure could be brought against Israel?" Trevor asked.
"Off the record, yes there could be more, and in time there might be more, but at least British arms aren't being used to kill women and children. It's a good first step."
"Yes, I understand. What's it like at Westminster?"
"It just doesn't stop, but at the same time I love it so much it doesn't feel like work. Even so from morning to night and even over dinner, it doesn't stop."
"I would like to do a feature, a day in the life of our member for parliament."
This meant discussions over lunch and over dinner, which some constituents might have problems with, even though their regular haunts the Two Chairmen, The Members Dining Room and her namesake restaurant were modest and Ariana was paying. "We'll see."
"Thank you Ariana and this will be online soon."
"Thanks Trevor."
Ariana showed Trevor out and then thought she should get in front of the conference agenda. Then Ariana thought she shouldn't and really she didn't know what to do.
