John Major's gamble was preceded by years of psychological trauma within the Conservative Party, writes Donald Macintyre

A Tory minister reports on the skulduggery and intrigue of a frenzied week in Westminster

ENEMY WITHIN: The Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party by Francis Beckett, John Murray pounds 19.99

Colonel Blimp is on the defensive but the rest of Britain doesn't mind gays in the forces, writes Edmund Hall

MAN DOES, WOMAN IS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF WORK AND GENDER, ed. Marion Shaw, Faber £15.99

Politicians and industrialists alike have been cowardly and inept at promoting the pro-EU case

Expect more of the type of political broadcast that caused this week's uproar, says Dennis Kavanagh

If the broadcasters lose this case, they will have lost the right to decide what is impartial, says Stephen Ward

The Prime Minister yesterday appeared to throw his weight behind the weekend's attack on the BBC by Jonathan Aitken, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as it became clear that the onslaught was the first strike in a co-ordinated assault on the corporation.

"It was kind of like free-fall television," said Jools Holland, recalling the glory days of The Tube (in The Legend of the Tube, Channel 4). "It wasn't contrived, was it," he added, turning to Paula Yates for confirmation. "It was genuinely shodd y." It was too, but memory is forgiving and The Tube now stands as one of television's Dunkirks, a disaster proudly remembered because of its evidence of pluck in the face of adversity. They filmed some fine bands too, which is important now that televis ion networks are beginning to exploit the value of their backlists.

As if dissent in the ranks was not enough, a Tory peer has called the p arty chairman a `pantaloon'. A political commentator has some advice to offer

Sir: I welcome the Prime Minister's decision to set up a standing committee to investigate standards in public life, but am disappointed and surprised by the manner in which I was treated by the Prime Minister in yesterday's statement in the House of Commons.

THE Conservatives risk losing the next election by sliding into 'Euroscepticaemia', Lord Howe, the former Foreign Secretary, warned yesterday.

THE Conservative Party is consulting its members. Our gobs are well smacked, our flabbers quite comprehensively ghasted. We knew things were bad. But this? All one can hope for now is that the party hierarchy is deeply insincere, that this is 'consultation' as in, 'I am consulting my lawyers', a form of verbal stress- relief from which nothing serious follows.