GREAT POLITICAL ECCENTRICS - Hardcover

The trouble with political jokes is that too many of them get elected. Here are some that did and some that didn't - and some that didn't need to, as they sat in the world's most eccentric legislative chamber, the House of Lords.
Colourful eccentrics, like John Wilkes, established our basic liberties. Curbing the arbitrary power claimed by George III, he combined politics, obscenity and debauchery in the Hellfire Club.
Others are amusing relics like Col. Sibthorp, the most reactionary MP ever - who successfully opposed the granting of 50,000 pounds a year to Prince Albert because he hated foreigners. Then there's Col. A. D. Wintle's 1945 manifesto where he declared 'Guy Fawkes was the last man to enter Parliament with good intentions. You need another like me to carry on his good work'. Also included are the 4th Earl Russell who told the Lords in 1978 that Jimmy Carter and Mr. Brezhnev were the same person and called for the police and the army to be abolished, and A. P. Herbert, the only MP who specialised in making speeches in verse. He even corresponded with the Inland Revenue in rhyming couplets.
These, and many other eccentrics portrayed in this hilarious book illustrate why Britain is the world's leading political asylum.