James Crooks

“The cosiness of the old socialism had turned into a rabble, with cardboard leaders ready to be burned down by the firebrands of the far left; the present government practised an outward show of Victorian paternalism, together with values that had little meaning in the modern world — and often no meaning at all for the civil servants who acted on its behalf. The middle ground Naldo saw as a scattering of foxholes, peopled by men and women who dreamed impossible dreams, and had not one clear, original, or feasible political thought between them.”
― John Gardner, The Secret Trilogy