Palace of Varieties : An Insider's View of Westminster

London England: John Murray. There is no wittier guide to the House of Commons than Julian Critchley, none under the arc lights of Thatcherite orthodoxy is more his own man. And no one has a clearer eye for the sense, passion and occasional humbug that inspire those who guard our liberties from the back benches. All the less known aspect of a Tory MP's life are here: ideology and ambition: the whips (known to the irreverent as the broederbond): the luckless political wives, before whom no raffles remain undrawn: the fund-raising dinners with Camberley Man: the occasional appearance of the Prime Minister in electric blue, on her way to give the country a well-deserved thrashing. The party has changed since Critchley first arrived at the Palace of Westminster, flanked by wife and agent almost as if under arrest. In those days a Tory could be recognised by his stiff collar, white silk handkerchief and well-polished black shoes. But as the ideological gulf between the parties has widened, so the social one has diminished. Mrs. Thatcher has recast the Tories according to the values of the once unfashionable lower middle class. Like some comic political Dante, Critchley reviews the survivors and spurned of both eras, in their circles of Paradise or elsewhere. Shrewd, mordant, funny, this is the best picture we will ever get of the House of Commons in the age of Thatcher. . Fine. Boards. Reprint. 1989.