Apart from the fact that King Norm and his men managed to score a "landslide" with less than half the valid votes cast, the most interesting aspect of the 1972 general election, pundits seemed to agree, was the emergence of a shiny new political party. Under the leadership of ex-journalist Tony Brunt, the Values Party - a belated product of "end to ideology" thinking - excited liberals everywhere with its promise to redecorate the walls while leaving the structure intact. The image projected would have wowed them on Madison Avenue; it had all the style and unreality of a Coca Cola ad. The vocabulary was Now ("communication", "participation", "involvement", "decentralisation", "democratisation"), the reading list was up to date, if a bit gauche, and the spirit youthful, riding the wave of the ad industry's successful conquering of a hitherto hostile sector.

Beneath the exterior that Values tried to sell as real, however, major and minor antagonisms were evident. The Party decried materialism, yet wished to retain a materialistic incentive system; the Party wished to discourage advertising, yet used the slickest adverts in the campaign; the Party stressed and valued its youth image, yet advocated a stable population which would greatly increase the average age; the Party wished to redistribute wealth, yet leave the machines that create wealth in private hands; the Party wished to establish zero economic growth, yet - by some definitions - advocated a growth rate in excess of that achieved in recent years; the Party wished to retain links with our present allies, yet has expressed interest in recognition of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam; the Party wished to abolish the Security Service, yet wanted to "screen" Party members and exclude "extremists", the Party shunned leadership and machine politics, yet has recently been the vehicle for both.