Dominant Ideology of the Conservatives OneNationism vs Thatcherism

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Dominant Ideology of the Conservatives One-Nationism vs Thatcherism

Dominant Ideology of the Conservatives One-Nationism vs Thatcherism

 • In this part of the exam you will have to talk about

• In this part of the exam you will have to talk about how the policies of a political party had an impact on their electoral results over a certain time period • It is also helpful to be able to talk about how the policies of the party fit in with the core ideology of the party

Non-Ideological • Conservatism is quite paradoxical as a political ideology, because one of the

Non-Ideological • Conservatism is quite paradoxical as a political ideology, because one of the key tenets of conservatism is that it I supposed to be nonideological. Conservatives are supposed to be pragmatists who put simple straightforward common sense ahead of non-rational ideology. However, despite all of this there are two distinct branches within the Conservative party – in the same was as Liberalism is split between classical liberals and modern liberals, and socialism has communism and social democracy. • One Nation Conservatism and Thatcherism

One Nation Conservatism • Up until the early 1970’s, the core ideology of the

One Nation Conservatism • Up until the early 1970’s, the core ideology of the Conservative Party was “one-nation” conservatism This essentially started off from a phrase used by Benjamin Disraeli, who had been the PM in the 1860’s. He basically was trying to respond to the deepening economic inequalities that were occurring in Victorian, Industrial Revolution Britain. Capitalism was really kicking off, but so was the division between those doing well out of capitalism, and those living in worsening poverty. The very conditions that Marx was writing about. Disraeli could see threat the poverty of the working classes could cause to the political system , so he was adapting the ideology of his party to reach out to this group. He was reminding the upper classes that they have a paternalistic duty to the lower classes. They must see themselves as the responsible fathers of these factories, and provide decent wages and safer working conditions for their workers. This relates back to the Conservative view of society as an organic body, where every part has responsibilities towards the others, or the whole will die.

 • Disraeli believed in social obligation rather than individualism. He believed that if

• Disraeli believed in social obligation rather than individualism. He believed that if the rich did not fulfil their obligations to the poor, then Britain would become two nations – the rich and the poor – opposed to each other. This would lead to an irreconcilable breakdown, and possibly a revolution of the working classes. He believed that the rich should live by the feudal tradition of “noblesse oblige”, which meant that the nobility have a responsibility to look after the peasants in their care. The government should be paternalistic, and provide support and welfare for the poorest in society. Part of his reason for doing this was that the right to vote was at this time being extended to working men, so he needed to portray the Conservative Party as being on the side of the working man in order to get votes. There was no Labour Party back then, and their main opponents were the Liberals, who were bang into capitalism and individualism. So Disraeli had a lot of pragmatic reasons for his seemingly principled stand.

After WW 2 • The Conservatives went off One-Nationism for a while after Disraeli

After WW 2 • The Conservatives went off One-Nationism for a while after Disraeli and went back to capitalism and their more traditional ideas. But following the war, Disraeli’s ideas became fashionable again within the party. Harold Mac. Millan was the Conservative Prime Minister in the early post-war years of the 1950’s. This was a time in British politics where the welfare state was really beginning, and the Conservatives were just as behind it as the Labour Party. It was their opinion that working people should live well – just not quite as well as them. Harold Mac. Millan was from a very privileged background – he was himself an old Etonian, and there were all these pictures of him shooting grouse on moors all over the place. Basically, the poor to Mac. Millan were the salt of the earth types who collected the grouse and cleaned the manor house. So the NHS should be heavily supported and the welfare state should deal with the 5 giants.

Thatcherism • Margaret Thatcher came from a very different background to Harold Mac. Millan,

Thatcherism • Margaret Thatcher came from a very different background to Harold Mac. Millan, and had a very different view of what Conservatism should be about. She was the daughter of a grocer, so from a lowermiddle class background. Her beliefs were really centred around Victorian ideals of Church of England, Protestant work-ethic. • Individuals should be responsible for themselves and their families, the government should be limited in its access into people lives, but the law should be strict and punishments for those who break it should be harsh. • So linking to some traditional conservative beliefs about the imperfectible nature of human beings, while kind of differing from the organic society stuff to some extent.

Society? • “I think we have gone through a period when too many children

Society? • “I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem; it is the government’s job to cope with it’…. And they are casting their problems upon society, and who is society? There are individual men and women, and there are families, and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and our neighbour… and people have got their entitlements too much in mind without the obligations… There is no such thing as society”. Now this quote is often repeated and often a little misrepresented, by just repeating that last phrase. But I think it Is pretty clear that Mags was making quite an individualistic point here. She was against any kind of collectivism which she saw as the dark figure of communism invading from the East.

The Free Market • At the same time as Thatcher was making her ascent

The Free Market • At the same time as Thatcher was making her ascent in the 1970’s, an Austrian economist- Friedrich Hayek – was making the case for further free-marketism and unfettered capitalism. • So Thatcher and her advisers took on many of the economic policies of Hayek, while putting a distinctly socially Conservative spin on it, which had much to do with the personality of Thatch. • There was also a move to much greater nationalism – which had not been present within one-nationism.

 • The Conservatives had a difficult relationship with nationalism throughout the 1960’s and

• The Conservatives had a difficult relationship with nationalism throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, with Enoch Powell, who had been a Conservative MP, making incendiary speeches against the increased waves of immigration. One-nation Tories were not instinctively antiimmigration, being pretty consensual on this issue too, especially as there was a huge need for workers to come into the country and fill all the jobs created in the post war boom years. However, in the 1970’s, recession hit and unemployment grew. Parties like the National Front (which became the BNP) set up, and race crimes – though they were not recorded as such grew. Thatcher moved the party considerably to the right on this issue of race, managing to outmanoeuvre the National Front. She privatized many state industries, causing massive, long-term unemployment in the North of the country. Thatcher certainly did not have a consensual approach to dealing with those with whom she disagreed. She put in place legislation which smashed the unions, and ordered the police to break strikes on several occasions.