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controversy reinforces rather than undermines his ethos by demonstrating his commitment to conservative ideas. In assessing Johnson’s performances at the party conference it therefore appears that his personal and emotional appeals and his willingness to talk to – and address the concerns of – the immediate audience are integral to his success. Whilst other politicians use this forum to project a public image, addressing the party as a secondary audience, Johnson cultivates an image as an authentic advocate of conservative views. This approach has helped to garner Johnson
introduction to part ii The renegade’s origins have frequently been located in structural changes – in particular the defeat of movements for social change and lulls in the class struggle – rather than flawed theoretical systems, material temptations, or personality quirks. There is considerable evidence that renegades tend to flourish in a political climate of reaction and decline as scores are settled, more conservative ideas permeate life, and heavy state repression is meted out to radicals who dared to probe the outer limits of political possibilities
which are voluntarily entered into but are inescapable parts of our life history as members of a community’.24 Willetts further defines the Conservative idea of community by echoing Oakeshott’s distinction between a ‘civic society’ and an ‘enterprise association’.25 The latter is one in which the government has clear ideological objectives and seeks to impose uniform patterns of behaviour on society in order to meet its objectives. The former is one in which the roles of the state are to defend its citizens from attack both internally and externally while at the same
some conservative voters do not genuinely believe in such ideas, supporting conservative parties for financial reasons and favouring measures like the triple lock when economic libertarianism threatens their interests, other conservatives are different. The behaviour of conservative activists, a group distinct from voters, is revealing. 8 Rather than engaging in politics for economic reasons, activists genuinely believe in conservative ideas of self-reliance; the moral principles of Thatcherism are a continued inspiration. The equation of conservatism with
). Correspondence from Roger Scruton to Kevin Hickson, 19 January 2007. Scruton, The Meaning of Conservatism (2001 edn), p. viii. See in particular, R. Scruton, The Conservative Idea of Community (Conservative 2000 Foundation, London, 1996). Correspondence from Roger Scruton to Kevin Hickson, 19 January 2007. Scruton, The Conservative Idea of Community. Ibid., p. 27. See Scruton, The Meaning of Conservatism (2001 edn). R. Scruton, England: An Elegy (Chatto and Windus, London, 2000). P. Worsthorne, Tricks of Memory (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1993). See, for instance, P
‘OneNation’ tradition of conservatism (Seawright, 2010; Carr, 2014). Sometimes the Introduction3 reworking of Conservative ideas was the result of new thinking about the economy and welfare and was driven by George Osborne who was an early moderniser and as Chancellor became a key partner of Cameron’s in government. Osborne, who was in many ways more interested in the intellectual foundations of policy than was Cameron, promoted a distinct strand of Conservative ideas which fused economic analysis and strategic thinking about the Conservative Party’s future appeal (Ganesh
Thatcherism. However, there is no fundamental inconsistency in ideological terms between the liberal conservatism of the Coalition and that pursued by Cameron in office. The core Conservative commitment to a neo-liberal political economy was never challenged in Opposition (Hayton, 2012), so its reassertion following an economic downturn was to be fully expected. Given the Conservatives’ success in dominating the Coalition’s statecraft (Hayton, 2014), we can view its ideology as derived essentially from Conservative ideas (Lakin, 2013: 476). Constructing a new conservatism
, linking political opponents like the liberal former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso or the conservative José Sarney with their left-wing successors Lula da Silva and Rousseff. Liberalism is so dominant, Carvalho argues, that conservative ideas have been squeezed out of circulation and politicians are obliged to express themselves in the language of the left, which is at odds with the conservative character of the country. As Brazil’s crisis deepened, Carvalho was seen by many as a prophet or an oracle. “At a time when nobody identified as being right-wing, he was
liberal views, conservative ideas expressing resistance to change, there is incentive for their display. Such processes have taken place for years – in academia and the public sector espousal of liberal views has long allowed the speaker to assure colleagues that (s)he is one of them – yet social media has increased this effect. The medium allows uniform statements to be shared instantly with thousands of like-minded colleagues; this is rich soil for the diffusion of liberal views. Long-term effects of social media remain unknown. Despite this caveat, the significance
state – especially Parliament – which had but one interest, that of the whole. For Burke, of course, the ‘nation’ when understood politically was not the ‘people’ (as a multitude); rather it was those great aristocratic families whose station and duty in life was to conduct the affairs of state. As that exclusive understanding became less sustainable as the country was transformed socially and economically throughout the nineteenth century, the Conservative idea of the nation changed with it, as it has continued to do in the twenty-first. Disraeli’s celebrated