 Dunglass had shown little interest in politics while at Eton or Oxford . He had not joined the Oxford Union as budding politicians usually did . However , as heir to the family estates he was doubtful about the prospect of life as a country gentleman : " I was always rather discontented with this role and felt it wasn 't going to be enough . " His biographer David Dutton believes that Dunglass became interested in politics because of the widespread unemployment and poverty in the Scottish lowlands where his family lived . Later in his career , when he had become Prime Minister , Dunglass ( by then Sir Alec Douglas @-@ Home ) wrote in a memorandum : " I went into politics because I felt that it was a form of public service and that as nearly a generation of politicians had been cut down in the first war those who had anything to give in the way of leadership ought to do so " . His political thinking was influenced by that of Noel Skelton , a member of the Unionist party ( as the Conservatives were called in Scotland between 1912 and 1965 ) . Skelton advocated " a property @-@ owning democracy " , based on share @-@ options for workers and industrial democracy . Dunglass was not persuaded by the socialist ideal of public ownership . He shared Skelton 's view that " what everybody owns nobody owns " . 
