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I work in the House of Lords, so at the same time as having to be politically neutral while I'm on duty, I get to meet a good number of current and retired politicians. The one who has surprised me most in terms of the difference between the public persona and the real person has been an old tory who is popularly remembered as being one of Margaret Thatcher's hit-men.
Everyone expects him to be the Spitting Image caricature, but he's a disarmingly nice guy with a very good sense of humour.
I'd still never vote conservative, but chatting to him has been a lesson that you should never judge people on their public persona.
^^A friend of mine is an artist, and was commissioned to do a bunch of sketches of the inside of 10 Downing Street when John Major was living there.
He had been sitting in the corner of the cabinet room during a meeting, and when the meeting finished he found himself alone with John Major, who asked to see the sketches and personally gave him a guided tour of the whole place.
Apparently he was a really nice bloke.