It is hard to think of a more boring title (though a volume called "Liberal Policy-Making" would surely be even duller), but this book is interesting because it hits the right moment.
Although it had the patriotism to reject both Guy Burgess and Ted Heath when, as young men, they applied for jobs, the Conservative Research Department has traditionally been considered a rather anaemic body. Until the Thatcher era, it inhabited a separate building in Old Queen Street (there were many "homophobic" jokes about the address). This set it apart. It was rarefied and donnish, allegedly wet in character and Wet in political views.
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