The little band that represents the Liberal Party in Britain's House of Commons has the ragtag and comically mismatched look of Sergeant Bilko's platoon. It includes a 300-lb. spring maker, a Welsh barrister, a teacher from the Scottish highlands and an insurance manager from one of London's blue-blood suburbs. Their leader is an engaging aristocrat, Jeremy Thorpe, 44, an amateur violinist and accomplished mimic whose ancestors were serving in Parliament in the 14th century. Now the band has been joined by David Austick, a bald lay preacher and bookseller, and Clement Freud, an antic journalist and television personality who, besides...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
