Margaret Thatcher (Symbol)
Margaret Thatcher, the leader of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and Prime Minister during the novel, is not only of her party, but of the general sentiment in the United Kingdom. For much of the 1980s, people in the United Kingdom looked towards and longed for the past. They wanted a return to where things once were and did not want things to progress as rapidly as they had. And Margaret Thatcher delivered just that for them: a return to what once had been. That kind of environment makes it much more difficult for Nick and other HIV/AIDS positive people to be accepted by the country and those around them. They feared reprisals from people who didn't want things to change.
Wealth (Symbol)
Wealth, and money more specifically, is a symbol of the power many people in the United Kingdom (particularly those connected to politics) desired. For many, they used money as a way to control other people and force them to bend to their wills–ideologically and otherwise.
HIV/AIDS (Symbol)
Although based in reality and very much real, many U.K. Conservatives considered HIV/AIDS to be considered a reckoning for gay people throughout the world. They saw it as a symbol of their degeneracy and thought it was given to them by god to make them suffer for disobeying Him and His guidance. This misguided thought underscores the extent to which the Conservative party wanted to take the U.K. back to the proverbial stone age in terms of acceptance of different people.
Lithium (Symbol)
The lithium Catherine takes to manage her Bipolar disorder is a very powerful symbol of the time the novel is set in. The lithium, which is used to tamp down on behavior many would consider "crazy," is reflective of what many thought the U.K. needed: medication to control the "crazy."
Nick leaving the Fedden family (motif)
Perhaps the most common motif in the novel is Nick leaving the Fedden family. At several instances throughout the novel, Nick leaves the Fedden family household, oftentimes upset with the way that they have treated him or treated fellow gay people. This is reflective of the thoughts many had when dealing with the Conservative party in the U.K.
