He was a social liberal who supported reducing the age of consent for homosexuals to 16. And he was a Thatcherite who lost faith in Baroness Thatcher over the poll tax.In yesterday's instalment, he claimed to have admired her and her "brilliant" Euro-sceptical Bruges speech, but said she lost touch with the Tory party and the people through no fault of her own.This was not what he said at the time, which was that "the only way to be sure was to nail her in a coffin with a stake through her heart".And then there was the sex. He was irreverent, larger than life and a populist right-winger.When he was translated from Oxford to Epping Forest after a year out of the Commons, he became the emblematic Essex Man.But he was never really like that. A Labour student who was a Tory convert, he became a millionaire through his ownership of a VW- Audi dealership and described himself, ironically, as a "second-hand car dealer".He was married to the daughter of a rear-admiral and sent his son to Eton.

A minister in the Government until only two months ago, Mr Norris launched a vitriolic attack on Michael Heseltine, the Deputy Prime Minister, in yesterday's instalment.He accused Mr Heseltine of failing to reward his supporters, and said: "The real reason Emma Nicholson defected was that, after years of dogged devotion, Heseltine could hardly remember her name."But the real story that is revealed is one of a boisterous Thatcherite brought down to earth by the reality of less exciting times Mr Norris was the embodiment of the Thatcher boom years. Today the Mail launches its main salvo: "The truth about me and my five mistresses".His party is also angry about his disloyalty. More than one mistress feels bitter and betrayed by his decision to go into print about his relationships. The first draft of his book was so tame the publishers, who paid more than pounds 150,000, asked him to "spice it up". Now the publishers - and the Daily Mail, which began serialisation yesterday - have got what they want.But no one else is happy.

It seems that, as so often in his life, the former transport minister had the best of intentions. For months senior Tories have been shifting awkwardly at the thought of the "romp `n' tell" memoirs of Steven Norris hitting the bookshops next week, days before their party conference. If schools can shield our children from corruption through computers (which they can), why can't we?. We need them to make a fuss, because that shows that society is serious But the final responsibility belongs with parents.

You cannot get on to the Net without a credit card, which means that for every child corrupted, there is an adult paying for it He or she is the best guardian of that child's interests Politicians cannot guard our children for us. In all this hysteria about the corrupting effects of the Internet on children, it is often forgotten that none of this comes for free. It would be possible for a desperate and bewildered government to impose the sort of restrictions on the Internet which would make it as useful as a phone box in North Korea. This probably won't happen, if only because all governments are scared of the effect that Communist phone exchanges had on the Communist economy.In the end, the solution is probably for adults to grow up; and for children to be looked after by their parents. Modern communications are impossible to monitor and control completely without reducing their usefulness to almost nothing, as anyone knows who has tried to place a phone call in a Communist country.

It's not an accident when you look in those newsgroups." He thinks though that "a bit of press hysteria" is all that the Government would need to say that the Internet must be regulated and to step in and try to impose its own will on the ISPs This may be impossible. But he's also saying that you don't want people - especially children - stumbling over offensive material accidentally."The fact is though that you don't stumble over this stuff. "Ian Taylor [the science and technology minister] is giving mixed signals on this He says the Internet can't be regulated - that's fine. Is the Internet to extend Dutch, or Californian obscenity laws to Britain?Malcolm Hetty, an Internet consultant, set up the "Campaign against Censorship of the Internet in Britain" following the police letter He is confused by the Government's answer to such questions. This is similar to the way in which copyrighted software is largely kept off the Net. The real difficulty comes with material that is illegal only in the country where it is received.