Callum and Jude McGregor

Callum and Jude McGregor are brothers whose relationship is shaped by an uneasy mix of exclusion, rivalry, and family loyalty. Jude’s closeness to their father and his secret involvement with the Liberation Militia leave Callum outside decisions that affect the family; when Callum realizes that Jude knows about a planned bombing at the Dundale Shopping Centre, he understands that his brother’s secrecy may carry consequences far beyond the household.

Unequal Place in the Family

Callum’s sense of being shut out becomes especially clear when Jude and their father prepare to leave together with a rolled blueprint. Callum sees the two of them standing at the door like father and son and feels excluded. When he asks why Jude may go with their father and he may not, the answer is that he is too young. The scene gives their rivalry a concrete domestic shape: Jude is trusted with a plan and invited into an adult world, while Callum is left to guess what is happening.

That exclusion sharpens when Callum says that if Jude is old enough to belong to the Liberation Militia, then he must be old enough too. Their father is startled by the revelation and turns on Jude, accusing him of having told Callum too much. Jude denies it vehemently. The exchange exposes a contradiction in the brothers’ positions: Jude has entered the organization, but apparently has not openly explained it to Callum; Callum, meanwhile, has inferred enough to confront their father. Their father insists that Callum must finish school and earn qualifications, then leaves with Jude. Jude warns Callum not to tell his Cross friend about the family’s militia involvement, presenting disclosure as a danger that could put a noose around their necks.

Secrecy and the Dundale Bombing

The brothers’ different knowledge becomes urgent when Callum says he is going to the shopping centre. Jude tells him pointedly not to go. Callum then connects Jude’s warning to the Liberation Militia’s plans at the Dundale and realizes that his brother knows something he has kept from him. Remembering that Sephy is at the shopping centre, Callum recognizes the danger and reacts with horror. Jude’s warning is not an explanation, but it makes the brothers’ secrecy consequential: Callum has to piece together the threat from what Jude will not say.

After the bombing, their mother directly asks Jude whether he planted it and warns him not to look to their father for an answer. Their father orders Jude to keep quiet. Callum later asks their mother whether Jude did it, but the evidence presented to the family does not settle the question. When the police say they have Jude’s identity-card information, their mother recalls that his card was scanned at the hospital, suggesting how authorities may have obtained it. Callum’s question about Jude remains unresolved in the conversation; their mother says only that Jude is being accused and may be hanged if caught. The brothers’ relationship is thus caught between suspicion and protection: Callum fears what Jude may have done, but also fears what the state may do to him.

Shared Pressures and Diverging Paths

The political conflict surrounding the brothers is not confined to their home. Callum witnesses hostility toward the Nought students admitted to Heathcroft, where a crowd chants against their presence and police attempt to manage the confrontation. On television, the report describes the students as having met “some hostility,” omitting the abuse Callum says he and the other Noughts experienced. At school, he overhears the headmaster suggest that the Noughts should go elsewhere, while Mrs Paxton argues that they are being constantly picked on and warns that one may retaliate. These incidents provide the wider pressure against which the brothers’ different choices unfold: Callum encounters exclusion directly, while Jude’s militia involvement is a secret that divides him from his younger brother.

The family’s private conflicts also reveal the limits of loyalty. Their father, who has previously not struck his children, slaps Jude after Jude turns away from him and speaks disrespectfully. He rebukes Jude for judging their sister without understanding what she has been through. The scene briefly makes Jude seem much younger in his father’s eyes, but it does not erase the distance between them. Instead, it shows a family in which anger, protection, and withheld knowledge coexist—and in which their father’s authority can abruptly become physical.

Relationship in the Larger Story

Callum and Jude are not simply opposing brothers: both are drawn into the consequences of the Liberation Militia’s actions, but they occupy different positions within its secrecy. Jude knows enough to warn Callum away from the Dundale, while Callum must infer the danger and worry about both Sephy and his brother. Later, the available scenes leave their specific relationship unresolved rather than offering reconciliation or a final reckoning. What they establish is a pattern: Jude’s guarded involvement repeatedly excludes Callum, and Callum’s concern repeatedly presses against that silence. Their brotherhood becomes one of the places where the novel makes political violence intimate, turning questions of allegiance and responsibility into a struggle over what a family can tell—and protect—its own members.