 In January 1964 , and in the absence of any other information , Macleod now editor of The Spectator , used the pretext of a review of a book by Randolph Churchill to publicise his own different and very detailed version of the leadership election . He described the " soundings " of five Tory grandees , four of whom , like Home and Macmillan had been to school at Eton , as a stitch up by an Etonian ' magic circle . ' The article received wide publicity convincing Anthony Howard , who later declared himself " deeply affronted ... and never more affronted than when Alec Douglas @-@ Home became leader of the Conservative Party . " 
