He looks with tolerance on smoking, hunting and established religion. He loves the countryside and hates developers and strip malls. Politically, Mortimer seems to disapprove equally of Mrs. Thatcher and of both her successors. He ridicules vegetarianism, atheism, astrology and the animal rights movement. Politics, it proposes, is always a dirty business.
Power belongs to Machiavellian plotters or to pushy pragmatists.
Terry Flitton's belief in liberal causes and his romantic passion are both in conflict with his wish for power. When he is accused of being soft on crime, and victory seems to be slipping away, he follows Lord Titmuss's advice and attacks Agnes's best friend, a kindly gay man who runs the local home for delinquent boys. Terry wins the election, but loses Agnes's love. American readers will recognize Terry Flitton as a type common on this side of the Atlantic as well. Indeed, his combination of attractive rhetoric, increasingly compromised ideals and sexual indiscretion is perhaps even more familiar here.