A fortnight before the polling day of the 1981 General Election, Robin Orford, then Leader of the Liberal Party, took two days from campaigning to visit his sister in Paris. Orford, 44, had only been leader for two years. He had succeeded Richard Wainwright following the collapse of the Labour party in the wake of the 1977 dismissal and subsequent 1978 General Election. Despite high polling, there was a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Orford; one of the surplus men of the Cambridge clique, prior to his joining of the Liberal party and subsequent election to Parliament in 1966, he was known mainly as an unremarkable figure in the satire boom, having enjoyed minor notoriety through in a small bit-part for That Was the Week and in irregular article contributions for Private Eye. In 1966, he was elected MP for Chippenham with a majority of 143, defeating the Tory incumbent Daniel Awdry. His placement in Chippenham was last moment; Christopher Layton had stepped down as PPC following his 1965 car accident. In 1976, he was one of the twenty three Liberal MP's who found themselves in Parliament, and in the Labour-Liberal Coalition served as Minister of the Arts. In 1977, following the dismissal of the government, Orford was thrown back to opposition, where he succeeded Richard Wainwright in the aftermath of the 1978 General Election. And on February of 1981, on the cusp of power, Robin Orford found himself on the Parisian underground reading Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, a book that in time would not only profoundly impact his life, but also the lives of every single person in Britain and beyond.
Robin Orford wanted to save Britain. Save it from the collapse of the Empire and the chaos of the 1970's. To do so, he was going to build a new Britain, one rooted a disturbed interpretation of Baudrillard's works. But this was a fantasy, one that would cause him to unleash forces that he could not possibly hope to control, and would lead him to committed fictionalised atrocities within the hyperreality against the British people to perpetuate his power.
This is the story of one such atrocity.
Robin Orford wanted to save Britain. Save it from the collapse of the Empire and the chaos of the 1970's. To do so, he was going to build a new Britain, one rooted a disturbed interpretation of Baudrillard's works. But this was a fantasy, one that would cause him to unleash forces that he could not possibly hope to control, and would lead him to committed fictionalised atrocities within the hyperreality against the British people to perpetuate his power.
This is the story of one such atrocity.