FORTY SHADES OF BLUE

This book enters a twilight world of intrigue, organisational politics, competing personalities and ideological assertiveness. This was a world where in some but by no means all cases, loyalty to the Conservative Party played second fiddle to the group and its agenda. Rivalries were intense, as were the platforms on which Conservative group politics were conducted. There were even cases where certain group zealots had few compunctions about subverting the party leadership and their principal lieutenants. Outwardly, Tory politics appeared so civil, but in reality was quite barbarous.

Assessments of the modern British state beget the treatises of reputable historians, but those are incomplete without an informed evaluation of the full workings of Britain's most effective political force, the Conservative Party. It was to shed light on the latter that this workwas undertaken, and which the author has pursued thoroughly with the sole purpose of objective enquiry.