Well, it's probably more true to say that Churchill was a Liberal who was abandoned by his party.

And I suppose Maggie was forced to centralise power because the loony left had taken over local government (I confess I don't know why the latter happened.)

That is why Maggie centralised power, yes, but it was still the wrong move. Like them or not, those lunatic left-wing councillors were elected in fair elections. She realised that the way to beat Labour in Whitehall was to get more votes than them, but didn't seem to twig that the same method should have been used on a local level.

The Tories have no right to complain about having their local councils stamped on by Westminster or about the reformation of the Lords or about having city politicians force their will on the countryside. They created the huge centralised power-base. Did it really not occur to them that Labour might get back in one day and be able to use the tools the Tories had created for them?

Good point about Churchill.