Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1990, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My cast away this week is a politician, a witty, articulate and dedicated parliamentarian.

He never seriously considered any other career.

After 15 years on the back benches, he was finally called to the front by Margaret Thatcher,

where in a series of important posts, but most

particularly as leader of the house, he established himself as one of the most popular

men at Westminster. This affection did not survive at number 10.

His concern about what he called the raucous leadership and his call for a balanced ticket

before the last election earned him the label of a semi-detached member of the Cabinet and his eventual dismissal.

Total detachment, however, may have sharpened his criticism, but it has not tempered his fundamental loyalty. He is the right honourable John Biffin.

Have you ever Mr Biffin, I wonder wished you bitten your tongue on those occasions which incurred the displeasure of number 10 in the sense that you could still be there now at the center of

power no no regrets the Edith Piaf of politics but you were eight years on the

inside you must miss it oh of course I miss it tremendously but I think life's an

eternal learning curve I had those eight years now I have a different role in politics.

But is it ground that you might one day like to recapture to get back

into the cabinet? No I don't think so. I'm philosophic about that. It's absurd to

foreclose any options for the future, but I certainly don't operate by an ambition to return to cabinet office.

I wonder if you have though a different ambition because you said soon after you were sacked that when the time came to replace Mrs Thatcher you wanted to be a powerbroker to have you said a significant say in who succeeds her.

Do you find yourself marshalling your thoughts on these matters these days?

I think it would be ample ambitions at the time they were spoken.

I think that of course when the time arises for a change in the Conservative Party leadership

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