Wikipedia has its uses, and here is an excellent summary of a BBC Four series that turns up from time to time. Tory! Tory! Tory! traces the hijacking in the 1970s of the Conservative party by the disciples of Milton Friedman and some extremely reactionary nutcases who form the heart of the Eurosceptic movement in Britain.

There are excellent links in the article to go exploring elsewhere on the subject.

Enjoy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory!_Tory!_Tory!

For some reason the formatting here won't permit the full link but copy and paste the full text of the url into your browser bar and it will work.

If memory serves me correctly, Ronald, chief among them was Keith Joseph, referred to as "The Mad Monk" by political opponents at the time and, legend has it, by Denis Thatcher.