Not since Patty Hearst, the female scion of the wealthy Californian newspaper family, turned up in a leftwing terrorist gang have so many been so surprised at the survival of Michael Ancram as a leading member of William Hague's band of Eurosceptics. Ancram, or more accurately, the Earl of Ancram, has been chairman of Mr Hague's Conservative party since 1998.
Nobody who has known the witty, guitar playing, folk singing, level headed heir to the 12th Marquess of Lothian, can think this Swiss educated, multilingual, razor sharp barrister to be as obsessively anti-European as many of his colleagues. The alternative to his being seen as a "hostage" is to think of him - along with Michael Trend, the son of former cabinet secretary Baron Trend - as an establishment "balance wheel". As such he can help keep the party from tipping over into Europhobic lunacy, thus saving it for the future.
It is probably easier for him because, although born into a aristocratic Scots Catholic family, he has always been something of an outsider. Born in London he was initially educated in a French speaking Swiss school before attending Ampleforth and Edinburgh University.
An Edinburgh advocate since 1970, he has been an active company director, not least in his wealthy family's agricultural firms, one of which holds 1,500 acres. He is married to Lady Jane Fitzalan-Howard, daughter of the 16th RC Duke of Norfolk.
Michael Ancram was the first Scottish Catholic to take a seat in Scotland when he won Berwick and East Lothian in 1974, then Edinburgh South (1979-87). But the Scottish anti-Tory tide forced him to seek asylum in Devizes from 1992. His talents were soon recognised in his post of under secretary, then minister of state for Northern Ireland (1993-97) and he was recommended by Sir Patrick Mayhew as his successor, but that was blocked by Labour's 1997 landslide.
A close friend of Mr Hague, Mr Ancram backed him for the leadership from the outset. Mr Hague named him spokesman on constitutional affairs, in which role he battled forcefully against devolution, even for Scotland. When he lost the devolution argument, he became deputy chairman and then chairman of the Conservative party, succeeding Lord Parkinson. In this post, he has played the unseen role of a buffer for the relentless pressure from Europhobes on their more moderate leader. Because of the continuing shift to these Europhobes, this does not always work.