"I dined with Michael Heseltine at his request at the Stafford Hotel towards the end of July [1990]. "Are you going to run in the autumn?" I asked him bluntly. He obfuscated at first (he did not really know me well enough to take me into his confidence) but later, as we lingered over several brandies past midnight, he said: "I am of a mind to do it. But I have only one bullet in my gun. I can't afford to miss"."