The Conservative Party - Professor Vernon Bogdanor

ladies and gentlemen this is the first of a series of lectures on the party system but I should also be giving a one-off lecture on the 7th of November on the anniversary of the American election on America one year on electron Donald Trump and populism but this first lecture will be on the Conservative Party in future weeks I shall talk about the Liberals and Liberal Democrats the Labour Party minor parties and nationalist parties I should do my best in these lectures to be fair to all of them and to be nonpartisan but of course there are few if any propositions in politics which command universal agreement I'm not myself a member of any political party but I have voted in every general election since reaching voting age I shall regard these lectures as successful if you the audience are unable to tell how I have voted in recent general elections now let me begin by making a few general points on the British party system if I had given this lecture fifty years ago the emphasis would have had to be on factors of stability and continuity 1945 had seen the beginning of a two-party battle between the Conservatives and labour and it seemed that little would disturb it not only that but identification with the two major parties was strong and large numbers of people belonged to them who go a bit further back to 1951 no fewer than three and a half million around 10% of the electorate belonged to the conservative or Labour Party's and in the immediate post-war period the Liberals are very much a minor party in the general election of 1966 they gained just 12 seats actually what they got in the recent election and the nationalist parties did not win a single seat in 1966 there were only two MPs who didn't belong to one of the three major parties so 616 of 630 MPs were Labour or conservative and they won nearly 89 to the vote now curiously that result does bear some resemblance to the recent general election at which the two major parties won around 84 percent of the vote and the Liberal Democrats once again won 12 feet though of course the Scottish Nationalist Party won a large number of seats but what changes convulsions we have seen in the intervening years with the rise and fall of the Liberal Democrats the rise and fall of nationalist parties and the development of a completely separate party system in Northern Ireland and these are going to be the subject of future lectures in this series but for the moment it's simply worth pointing out that our assumptions of the continuity stability and slow evolution of the party system have taken a hard knock over the past 50 years now parties of course play a fundamental role in a parliamentary system it is Railly whom I would try to show has a claim to be regarded as the founder of the Conservative Party said in the 19th century but without party parliamentary government is impossible a great German sociologist Max Weber said the same thing more potentially parties he said live in a house of power and what they both meant was that in a parliamentary system parties compete for the chance to gain executive leadership to govern the country now in Britain after the Glorious Revolution of 1689 rested power from the king and Britain became a parliamentary monarchy the question arose what should Parliament do with these new powers which it had won how should the country now be governed and to that question two answers were given the Tory answer and the Whig answer to be replaced in the 19th century by the conservative and liberal answers and in the twentieth by the conservative and Labour answers normally one of these parties formed a government following a general election the other form the opposition and sought to remove it not perhaps through a vote in the House of Commons but at the following general election there was in other words a battle between the ins and outs now the minor parties seek to change the parliamentary system the Liberal Democrats seek as its predecessor Liberal Party did to change the electoral system to one of proportional representation and that would almost certainly fragment the party system creating a permanent multi-party politics and no doubt coalition and minority government as occurs in much of the continent you Kipp sought to take Britain out of the European Union and aim that it seems to have achieved but the party intends to maintain a watching brief to make sure that what it regards as the establishment parties do not backslide but carry out the people's verdict given in the referendum held last year the nationalist parties seek to change the system in a different way they do not seek to win power at Westminster indeed they go to Westminster to emphasize that they do not wish to be there they seek to win sufficient electoral support so as to cut loose from Westminster of course they want to form a government but not at Westminster they want to be in government in Edinburgh or Cardiff in their own countries once independence has been achieved perhaps if independence were to be achieved they would break up as the Irish nationalists did after Irish independence in 1922 perhaps there would be a Scottish Nationalist Party of the left contesting elections against a Scottish Nationalist Party of the right we do not know but what is clear is the primary purpose of the nationalist parties is not to form or even sustain a government at Westminster but to use Westminster as a forum to achieve independence rather like the Irish nationalists in the 19th century their purpose in coming into Westminster is to say in a very loud voice we do not belong here only time will tell whether they will be successful or not now political parties developed long before the days of mass fringe indeed some historians have traced them back to the 17th century to the battles between the King and Parliament the colloquial terms used for liberal and conservative party in the past Whig and Tory the term Tory is still of course used to describe the Conservatives these terms derived from the 17th century and our not complimentary a Whig was the Scottish cattle driver and youth the term was used to describe Presbyterian rebels who want to exclude the Catholic James a second chance accession to the throne a Tory was an Irish Catholic horse thief and the term was used to describe the supporters of James the second and the Jacobins now it's not entirely clear when the Conservative Party did actually begin because until legislation passed in the year 2000 the parties were not legal entities and so at least were the conservatives and liberals there is no obvious date at which it could be said that they had been formed Disraeli believed that the party had begun in the 18th century after the defeat of his government in 1880 he wrote to a colleague that the Tory party have existed for more than a century and a half as an organized political connection but the term conservative was not used in Britain in a political sense until 1830 the term liberal was also first used at around that time and both terms were used to describe political combinations which had arisen either in sympathy true or in a reaction against the French Revolution the term conservative spread rapidly after 1830 to describe those who were opposed to radical changes such as Catholic emancipation and the Reform Act it seemed a less negative description than anti reformer and in the 1830s the party began to develop constituency associations but in 1846 the party split on the issue of the repeal of the Corn Laws those who supported repeal under the leadership of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel broke from the party and formed a separate group in Parliament called the pea lights which eventually merged with the Liberals and in consequence of this split the party was in opposition for almost the whole of the next 28 years forming just three short-lived minority governments during this period now this split had a dramatic effect on the Conservative Party and it is often invoked by party leaders determined to prevent it happening again Lord Salisbury Prime Minister at the end of the 19th century said that to act like peel were to inflict the heaviest disaster the party could undergo Falls bruschetta Arthur Balfour was faced at the beginning of the 20th century with a crisis over tariff reform he was determined to hold the party together he was forced to use ambiguous and delaying tactics to prove to prevent a split and was attacked by opponents for never making his position clear perhaps that's a response to Arthur Balfour one critic of baltha said that he had nailed his colours to the mast sorry he had nailed his colours to the fence he had nailed his colours to the fence but he responded by saying I will not be another Sir Robert Peel I think there's an enemy of the Conservative Party running the machinery in 1963 when contrary to expectations Lord Hume became prime minister rather than are a butler Butler's supporters pressed him not to accept the decision and refused to serve but he refused to take this course saying the party split at the time of Peel was for him the supremely unforgettable lesson of history and that he would never under any Constance's Rick's risk that happening again more recently John Major David Cameron and Theresa may have done all they could to hold together contending factions on the European cause as Arthur Balfour did on tariff reform they've done their best to avoid a split and so far they have been successful but it is not an exaggeration to say that the most important figure in the modern Conservative Party is the ghost of Sir Robert Peel now after the 1846 split the conservative did not really regain their strength until the 1860s years which conceded with the coincided with the extension of the suffrage and this meant the parties had to develop modern organizational forms to develop machinery to link party leadership with the members with those who were to do the hard work of canvassing and taking voters to the polls they needed to organize the new mass electorate and this could only be done by recruiting voluntary unpaid party activists and the Conservatives as I've said they existed as a parliamentary party long before the extension of the suffrage which made them organize outside parliament they were the first in the field though some not sometimes reluctant and strengthened their already existing electoral base in 1867 a national union of conservative organizations was established whose task was to ensure that every constituency had a local association to select and support a Conservative candidate at the election in 1870 the Conservative Party opened a central office and these developments in mass organization were largely due to the influence of Disraeli who can I think claim to be the organizational founder of the party they were I think crucial to the development of democracy where conservatives embraced party organization and had strong grassroot electoral support they knew they need have no fear of democracy they would be able to win elections even under a democratic franchise therefore by contrast for example with conservative parties in Italy or in Germany and some other countries in the continent they were under no temptation to resist democracy or seek to overthrow it by aiding far-right groups now because there was already a conservative organization before the arrival of mass suffrage democracy was secured and for that reason I think the radical right has hardly ever been strong in Britain 1867 when the National Union was founded was also the year in which the first volume of Karl Marx's book dust capitol appeared I leave it to you to consider which has had more influence in Britain the book by Marx or the mass organisation of the Conservative Party now the Conservatives developed their organization with a body called the Primrose League which was founded in 1883 two years after Disraeli is death when Disraeli had died Queen Victoria sent a wreath of primroses for the funeral and this led people to believe that primroses would Israelis favorite flower they were wrong about his favorite flower nevertheless that didn't matter the Primrose League was a mass organisation which had its peak in 1901 claimed to have over a million and a half members non-voting women could join and there was a ladies grand council alongside out of the men there were also children over six in the Junior branches who were called buds and the purpose of the league was to enlist math support for canvassing and other activities essential to the success of a modern political party but it offered those who helped a great deal of entertainment including music halls conjuring events dances and cycling clubs political events and lectures generally took a backseat critics called the league vulgar but lady Salisbury wife of the late Victorian prime minister replied of course it's vulgar that's why we are so successful and the Primrose League marked the transition of the Conservative Party from an elite to a mass organisation now the conservative part is a remarkable party for two reasons the first is it has a longer continuous existence than other major parties in Britain and almost certainly a longer continuous existence than any other major party in the Democratic world one book on popular conservatism rather critical of the party begins like the poor the Conservatives are always with us while their opponents divide and coalesce expand and contract in provoking and exciting ways they appear to remain the constant element in the British political system the second remarkable feature is that the Conservatives have what might be called a governing vocation the Conservative Party has been called a natural party of government and it is arguably the most successful political party in the Democratic world it had tremendous adaptive powers book published around 20 years ago in the 20th century history of the Conservative Party call was called the conservative century now the great leaders of the Conservative Party in the 19th century it Israeli and Lord Salisbury believed that democracy would prove conservative and not radical in its implications and indeed the expansion of the franchise in the 19th and 20th centuries showed that popular feeling had strong conservative tendencies because after both the third reform act in 1884 and the fourth in 1918 which provided for universal male suffrage and female suffrage for women over 30 there were long periods of conservative rule and during the 20th century the Conservatives were in fact work way in in fact in government either alone or in coalition for two thirds of the time 66 years even when they were not in government their opponents sometimes enjoyed only a small majority in the House of Commons or had to govern without a majority at all in a hung parliament in the 20th century there were just four governments of the left with comfortable majorities 19 6 1945 1966 and 1997 and it was really only after these elections that British governments could do things that the Conservatives did not like when not in government the Conservatives of course were the official opposition and the obvious alternative government now the main opponents of the Conservative Party for most of the 20th century were the Labour Party and the Labour Party was formed to give parliamentary representation to the working class and that class was during the 20th century a majority of the electorate so had it voted solidly for labour there would have been labour government throughout this period but in fact around one-third of working-class voters have generally supported the Conservatives while amongst the self-employed and small businesspeople around 90% of generally voted conservative in other words class consciousness was much strong about that amongst that group which Marxists called the pity bourgeoisie much strong amongst that group and amongst the working class now why did so large a majority minority of the working class vote conservative that is a puzzle which we have to try to answer now when Disraeli died in 1881 the times of victory of him declared in the inarticulate mass of the English popular which they held at arm's length Disraeli discerned the conservative working man as the sculptor perceives the angel imprisoned in a block of marble and Disraeli and his successors understood that the working-class was often conservative in the sense of being against change in a speech in 1878 Disraeli said I look to the cultivation of public opinion and especially in the working classes for the maintenance of the British Empire then he said it is no light thing to belong to a nation where liberty and order coexist in the greatest degree that must benefit all classes and most particularly it must benefit the working man so his conclusion was that of all men working men must be most conservative mortal social research shows that two Israeli may well have been right since it has been shown that many members of the working class even if they vote labour are culturally conservative who do not share the views of leaders of the left as early as 1951 a social psychologist professor HJ eyes Inc examined working-class social attitudes he discovered that his sample held much more socially conservative attitudes than his middle-class sample amongst the views they held as in 1951 were support for flogging and capital punishment opposition to interracial marriage the belief that Jews held too much power and were not useful citizens hostility to conscientious objectors and compulsory sterilization of the hereditary unfit or disabled remarkably working-class respondents were more supportive of the institution of private property than middle-class respondents now the cultural attitudes and conservatism of the working-class is shown particularly in attitudes towards immigration in the 19th century there was considerable working-class hostility to Irish immigration and later to Jewish immigration in the 1960s there was hostility to immigration from the Caribbean and from the Indian subcontinent which was taken up by Enoch Powell more recently there's been hostility to immigration from Central Eastern Europe a major factor of course behind the brexit vote in the referendum last year in the 19th century significantly Lancashire where Irish immigration was heavy was a conservative stronghold the same was true in Glasgow indeed until the 1960s in both Liverpool and Glasgow the party division ran on religious rather than class lines the division between conservative in labour was really a division between Protestant and Catholic now it may be a mistake to characterize this hostility to immigration as racist because immigration is for many people a cultural disturbing element one may find it difficult to cope with but however you characterize it hostility immigration has caused many working-class voters to support and identify with the Conservative Party rather than with part of the left which sometimes do not seem to take their concerns seriously now the view that it is natural for the working class to support a party the left assumes that there is a united working class but in the 19th century the working class was divided both by region and even more important by religion indeed in the 19th century the key factor dividing voters was less class than religion by whether one was church or Chapel whether one supported the Anglican Church sometimes then called the Conservative Party at prayer or one of the nonconformist denominations one looks at the six elections between 1885 and 1910 the average conservative vote in Wales was 39% while in Inner London in the air of the old London County Council it was 53% now no one would suggest that Wales much of which is rural had more working-class people living in it than inner London but Wales was predominantly nonconformist while London was Anglican or secular in London as in Lancashire conservative support was based in part on hostility to immigrants Irish in Lancashire Irish and Jewish in London and religion and attitudes to immigration divided the working-class as today attitudes to immigration and towards the European Union divide the working-class in Scotland nationalism divides the working-class and in Northern Ireland of course the religious conflict remains the working-class is also divided by the nature of its employment employment in large-scale industry was always strongly associated with membership of a trade union and a likelihood of labour voting but in small-scale industry in agriculture or in personal service trade unionism was weak and members of the working class were more likely to be in close contact with their employer in a personal relationship than with other members of the working class so for those employed in small-scale industry there was little sense of working-class community and therefore a smaller propensity to vote for a party of the left a further factor helping the Conservatives paradoxically perhaps has been female suffrage next year we are to celebrate the centenary of women being given the vote in 1918 women over 40 were given over 30 were given the vote and in 1928 women over 21 were given the vote on the same basis as men now from the time that women were given the vote in 1918 until the 1980s women were more inclined to vote conservative than men indeed if women had voted the same way as men labour would have been continuously in power from 1945 to 1983 while if in the 20th century only women had been able to vote the Conservatives would have won every single general election except the three left-wing landslides of nineteen six 1945 and 1997 and part of the reason for this was in the interests of women were during this period very different from those of men women were more likely in the past to be churchgoers than men and for much of the 20th century church-going was associated with conservative voting the left the Liberals and then Labour tended to be geared to the interests of men in the workplace female interests were assumed to be equivalent but until the last quarter of the 20th century in most families the male was the breadwinner and the majority of women and certainly the vast majority of married women were not part of the labor market they were therefore far less likely to belong to trade unions and men and those who were in the labor market were less likely to be unionized in their role as housewives women saw themselves as consumers rather than producers and were perhaps more concerned with the dangers of rising prices from excessive wage demands than with higher wages during the post-war period of Labor government there was a system of rationing and subsidies to provide fair shares for all but many female consumers were opposed to this and they formed a body called the housewives League calling for its abolition and that League tended to support the Conservative Party in the early 1950s that conserves abolished rationing and subsidies significantly actly the Labour leader made the following rather revealing comment in 1955 he said the Conservative government by the abolition of subsidies has brought about untold difficulties I realised the rationing of foodstuffs was not popular but at least it enabled people to obtain fair shares at reasonable prices nowadays the shops are filled with articles at prices which the ordinary man and woman cannot afford but most women were not opposed to the abolition of rationing instead they welcomed the greater variety of goods in the shops so the social class system was cross structured then not so much now I think closed structured cross structured then by a gender system which cut across it the Conservatives were more skilled and part of the left in opinion to women they were also more skilled in the past in appealing to the young they're appreciated more than parties of the left that the vast majority of people are not particularly interested in politics or in attending political meetings they're therefore organized social occasions with the minimum political content for women whose husbands had gone out to work there were coffee mornings and wine and cheese parties social occasions at which they could meet friends for the Young Conservatives in the 1950s there were dances tennis matches and the like the rather classic comedy program as long ago in 1961 which some of you may have seen called the Blood Donor with Tony Hancock and Tony Hancock the hero he tells the nurse he decided to do something for the benefit of the country what should it be I thought become a blood donor or join the Young Conservatives but as I'm not looking for a wife and I can't play table tennis Here I am now many young people then in their more innocent days those more innocent days in their late teens or early twenties would certainly prefer the social occasions arranged by the young conservatives to what was being offered by the young socialists ernest seminars on nuclear disarmament were problems of the nationalized industries or the future of the welfare state and in this way people who were on the whole perhaps not very interested in politics would be drawn into the orbit of the Conservative Party interestingly in the first election held after the vote was given to 18 year-olds in 1969 which was the election of 1970 the young disproportionately supported the Conservatives many thought of the young in those days as radical students but of course at that time only a small minority of young people went to university the rest of them were in the labour market working perhaps in building sites or secretarial offices and had little sympathy with rebellious students in elite universities today of course the Conservatives seemed to have lost their magic touch in appealing to the young and in recent elections and in particular the election held earlier this year the young have voted very disproportionately for the Labour Party and that's a serious problem for the Conservatives which they have to resolve if they want to remain as a party of government now the Conservatives have been most successful electorally when voters have been frightened a former chairman of the party Lord Davidson said in 1961 if you look at the history of the Conservative Party you will always find that it is when the country is scared of Wildcat schemes and wants safety that it turns to the Conservative Party their first long period in office as Tories before the term conservative came into existence was during the aftermath of the French Revolution from 1812 to 1830 when voters of a frightened of revolutionary upheavals in Britain similar to those that had occurred in France the second long period of office came after 1886 when Gladstone had proposed Home Rule to Ireland and British voters reacted against what they thought was a surrender to terrorism and the breakup of the United Kingdom their third period of success came in the interwar years when voters were frightened of the growing Labour Party which they equated however absurd it might now seem with extremism and even with communism in the post-war period the Conservatives were successful after 1951 when voters felt the Labour Party could not be trusted with the economy and then after 1979 when after the winter of discontent voters were frightened of trade union power fear of a radical left has led defections from the left of the Conservatives not only by voters of the left but also leaders of the left indeed conservative dominance has been greatly assisted over the past hundred and thirty years by the defection to them of left-wing leaders in 1886 of Joseph Chamberlain who was opposed to Irish Home Rule in 1918 of lloyd-george when he formed a coalition conservatives and both Chamberlin and Lloyd George were dissident liberals and then in 1931 Ramsay MacDonald a dissident socialist when he formed a national government in the middle of the samp these three men helped the Conservatives win landslide victories in the elections of 1919 eighteen and 1931 so the politics of Chamberlain Lloyd George and MacDonald have been described in many and various ways but no one has ever suggested that they were conservatives but they helped secure landslide majorities in three general elections the Conservatives were to prove far more flexible and adaptive in attracting dissident elements than the part of the left this was one of the reasons for their success Harold Macmillan who was Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963 mischievously suggested that the last purely Conservative government was formed by mr. Disraeli in 1874 it is the fact we have attracted moderate people of liberal tradition and thought into our ranks which makes it possible to maintain a Conservative government today Lord Salisbury prime minister at the end of the 19th century he expressed this view of conservative success to his daughter lady Gwendolen sessile when she was writing his biography he used to insist so she says that the forces which make for the defense of institutions as well as the principles bound with them are immensely powerful and sufficient in themselves to win adherence to any party that is able sincerely and loyally to place itself at their service he used to declare that mr. Gladstone's existence was the greatest source of strength which the Conservative Party possessed he did not shrink from the fact that according to his views the success of his own party was dependent upon the existence of the other I rank myself he said no higher in the scheme of things and a policeman whose utility would disappear if there were no criminals so conservative success was gained in part by default this same point was made in more popular form in the 1920s in a children's story of the period by right at once popular but perhaps almost forgotten today a writer called rich Moore Crompton who wrote books about a young scamp called William I certainly remember enjoying the William books when young oh I didn't realize the political content then and but I don't know where they're still read today at anyway in 1930 she wrote a book of stories called William the bad and one of the stories in that book is called William the prime-minister and in this story William and three of his friends decide to hold a mock election William explains the differences between the parties there's four thoughts of people he says trying to get to be rulers they all want to make things better but they want to make them better in different ways there's conservatives and they want to make things better by keeping them just what like what they are now and those liberals and they want to make things better by altering them just a bit but not so anyone would notice and the Socialists and they want to make things better by taking everyone's money off them and there's communists and they want to make things better by killing everyone but themselves now one of Williams friends Henry is a socialist candidate but another boy says that Henry's proposal to take the money of others is sinful another friend Douglass is a liberal who promises presents to anyone who votes for him but William the conservative wins the mock election unanimously and all other stories in a book called William the fourth with in 1924 is called a weak spot Williams much older brother Robert joins a society of reformed Bolsheviks he buys a red tie and says that he supports the redistribution of wealth the equalization of incomes and the freedom of the working classes but William and his friends form a junior branch of the society and they take Roberts watch purse and bicycle Robert then abandons communism he tells his father it's all right when you get your share of other people's things but when other people try to get your things then that's different are says his father who's very wise that's the weak spot I am glad you found it out so the culture of children's stores at that time and platters other times as well seem very much in sympathy with the conservative cause writing a little later George Orwell lamented the conservative implications of children's stories he mentioned specifically the Billy Bunter stories set in a public school called Greyfriars and said that these were forms of concealed propaganda giving working-class children the idea that the existing social hierarchy was both stable and beneficial he made a plea for socialist stories for children but that plea has not yet I think been answered practice Jeremy Corbyn were right one but perhaps it never will be answered but I think these children's stories do imply something rather interesting because people on the Left tend to assume that it's natural for the working class to be on the left and then anyone from the working class who is not on the Left is somehow deviant but perhaps these examples from the children's stories so the fundamental culture is so much in congruence with the conservative party that into the left-wing voter whether working-class or not who is deviant so on this view it is natural for a member of the working class to support the Conservatives and what needs to be explained is not why minority of the working class vote conservative but why the majority do not but despite the evidence of these children's stories and despite what Lord Salisbury said the Conservatives have not always relied on an entirely negative appeal to the people they have also had a positive conception of government to put before them in Disraeli as novel Sybil written in the 1840s a novel still well worth read and which together with its companion volume Coningsby provide an excellent account of the author's political beliefs he declared that the Tory party has its origin in great principles and in noble instincts and one of these instincts was to announce that power has only one duty to secure the social welfare of the people and the word people is written in the novel in capital letters now the quotation in the book about the two nations is no doubt too well-known to bear repetition but the following one is less well-known though it's equally melodramatic the hero of a novel Egremont the Earl of Marnie is talking to a leader of the working class Chartist movement called gerard Egremont says a great family rooted in the land has been deemed to be an element of political strength I'll tell you what says Gerard there is a great family in this county and rooted in it of which we have heard much less than they deserved but of which I suspect we shall very soon hear enough to make us think of it in this county I in this county and every other one I mean the people and the novel ends with Egremont marrying the daughter of Gerard the Chartists symbolizing the union between the aristocracy and working class which Disraeli hope the Conservative Party would be able to achieve now it Israeli believe that the Conservatives should stand not just for blind adherence to the status quo but also for reform for social reform and he was the first leading politician in Britain to put legislation to improve public health on to the political agenda in a speech delivered in opposition in Manchester in 1872 he spoke about the need to increase the well-being of the working classes of this country and he insisted that public attention should be concentrated upon sanitary legislation very unfashionable subject at the time pure air pure water the inspection of unhealthy habitations the adulteration of food these and many kindred matters may be legitimately dealt with by the legislature he then added rather whimsically that there was a great mistake in the scriptures because instead of the phrase of vanity of vanities all is vanity vanity vanity autumn omnia vanities the wise and witty King had really meant sanitized Sunnat artful romney our sanities and he was as I say the first Prime Minister to bring the needs of Public Health to general attention it was he said impossible to over rate the importance of the subject after all the first consideration of a minister would be the health of the people the land may be covered with historic trophies with museums of science and galleries of art with universities and with libraries the people may be civilized and ingenious the country maybe even famous in the annals and actions of the world but gentlemen if the population every 10 years decreases and the stature of the race every 10 years diminishes the history of that country will soon be the history of the past but of course the problems of the Conservative Party today are very different from what they were in the late 19th century traditionally conservatives saw themselves as the party of the nation and also the Empire which it championed even in the post-war world the 1951 conservative manifesto declared the Conservative Party by long tradition and settled belief is the party of the Empire but of course in the post-war world the Empire was coming to an end and the nation seemed in decline Britain no longer seemed one of the world's great powers the Conservative Party had also seen itself as a party of religion but religion too seemed in decline as Britain was becoming a more secularized society in addition the growth of social mobility and an adversary culture were challenging traditional conservative ideas on hierarchy and order this was shown in the post-war years by the transition to a new and different kind of conservative leader one whose credentials were based on merit rather than on birth of the first four conservative Prime Minister's after the war Churchill was the grandson of a Duke and the son of a conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Eden was the son of a baronet and his second wife was Churchill's niece Harold Macmillan was the son-in-law of a Duke who had been a Conservative cabinet minister in the 1920s Sir Alec douglas-home was a 14th Earl who renounced his title these four was succeeded by leaders were very different social stratum Edward Heath was the son of a builder and the lady's maid Margaret Thatcher was the daughter of a grocer John Major was the son of a trapeze artist in a circus who then became a manufacturer of garden ornaments William Hague with the son of a soft drinks manufacturer later Michael Howard was the son of a Romanian Jewish immigrant who became a shopkeeper in South Wales with David Cameron we were back perhaps to a more traditional style of leader but to reason may has more in common with leaders such as Heath Margaret Thatcher and major her father was a vicar in a small Oxfordshire parish and she was educated at a state school she is indeed the first Prime Minister to have attended a comprehensive school in the post-war years the symbols associated with the Conservative Party Empire Patrick ISM and religion seemed no longer relevant further the wartime coalition and the growing consensus on policy in the 1950s made it much more difficult to characterize the Labour Party has some how extreme or revolutionary Churchill had tried it in the 1945 election when he'd said that a socialist state could not be introduced without some form of Gestapo but it appeared absolutely ridiculous to compare the Labour Party which had governed with him during the war to the Nazi Party and the mild-mannered athlete a Hitler or Himmler moreover voters were demanding much more from government than in the past the public had growing material needs and a belief that the government should meet them in particular successful management of the economy the preservation of full employment rising living standards and a developing welfare state in the 1950s therefore the conservatives came to justify their title to power by the success of managing the economy against the suppose errors of the Labor Party the party of the nation transformed itself into the party of economic management but that too seemed in difficulty by the 1970s whence appeared the British economy like Britain's great power status was in decline trouble was that both major parties were raising expectations of economic growth and they did not know how to meet them the problem of raising the rate of growth seemed intractable the conservative response in the late 1950s under Harold Macmillan was a much greater degree of state intervention a national economic development office to encourage growth and a national income zku mission to develop an income policy hopefully the Conservatives could work with both sides of industry to improve Britain's economic performance but the trouble with this approach was that it brought the Conservatives into conflict with the trade union movement when Conservative government's tried to restrict the growth of wages under Edward Heath Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974 and Industrial Relations Act was passed to bring the trade unions within the framework of the law but the trade unions refused to cooperate with it and the Heath government was brought by the trade unions following a miners strike in the winter of 1973-74 and the who governs election of February 1974 which brought labour to power the failures of a millon and Heath governments ended the implicit assumption that the Conservatives could manage the post-war consensus better than labour it was becoming more difficult for the Conservatives to pose as the party of efficient management but in any case the policies that had been adopted by conservatives to control inflation and encourage economic growth involved a much greater degree of government intervention the most conservative thought was desirable there seemed to be a kind of ratchet effect whereby each Labour government increased the power of the state without it being reversed by conservative governments but conservatives so most members of the party believe were not there many to accept an enhanced role of the state they were there to ensure there was a smaller role for the state there was moreover an important conservative constituency which had not shared in the benefits of the post-war consensus built in part upon the Concordat between government and the trade unions that constituency comprised people on fixed incomes pensioners self-employed and small businesses a natural conservative constituency it was this constituency which had suffered the most from inflation this constituency which believed that instead of the trade unions being recognized as a grand estate of the realm their role should be lessened it was this constituency which believed that the welfare state had got out of hand and was subsidizing the feckless and irresponsible this constituency was hostile to many of the changes of the post-war years the enhanced role of the trade unions the inflation which followed in its wake the increase in immigration and crime and the growth of welfare dependence but this constituency seemed to be ignored by the post-war leaders of the Conservative Party Churchill Macmillan Heath desperate to conciliate the unions it this constituency which came to recognize Margaret Thatcher as the true representative of their hopes and fears what this constituency demanded was less intervention and a renewed emphasis on patriotism and nationhood Enoch Powell who was in many ways the John the Baptist's of the new regime of Thatcherism declared nationhood with all that word implies is what the Tory party is ultimately about the Conservatives should become once again the party of the nation not the party of the state and the essence of Thatcherism was the abandonment of the attempt to resolve Britain's economic and social problems in the within the framework and institutional constraints of the post-war consensus a consensus which Margaret Thatcher saw as basically social democratic and not conservative she sought to challenge the role of a public sector the mixed economy and the immunities of the trade unions she sought to encourage individual responsibility and to lower expectations of what the state could do she sought to recreate the spirit of enterprise which she believes had been weakened by excessive state control the market would be given an enhanced role as a means to the creation of a more ordered and responsible society economics are the method the object is to change the heart and soul Margaret Thatcher said in 1981 but Thatcherism created its own problems the primary problem was that it tended to the creation of a society based on instant gratification and the immediate satisfaction of consumer needs the appeal of Thatcherism was less of the values of individualism responsibility and self-reliance than to the material benefits in particular tax cuts capital and home ownership people accepted these while ignoring the sermons about discipline effort and self-restraint in the late 1980s the lost and boom was less about saving an investment more about borrowing and spending were Thatcherite entrepreneurs really heroes or did they not symbolize a cache Nexus of feeding that human relationships could be reduced to calculations of interest and that individuals had no sense of responsibility for each other that was precisely the opposite of what Margaret Thatcher had sought to achieve in the 1930s Harold Macmillan who was to be a bitter opponent of Thatcherism declared the Conservative Party has become dominated by money and the city and he went on to say that a party dominated by second-class Brewers and company promoters a casino capitalism is not likely to represent anybody but itself an unkind critic said that Margaret Thatcher had sought to create an economy in the image of her father the thrifty grocer and Methodist lay preacher who always put aside money for a rainy day but instead he had created a society in image of her son a get-rich-quick businessman and the trouble was the market economy was a distinctly unconservative force undermining and subversive of established values it undermined the status quo the landed gentry the church the traditional family the local community even the nation itself was a result of the pressures of globalization and globalization meant cooperation with Europe the conservative commitment to Europe was made in the 1960s when it was believed that Europe held a secret of a higher rate of economic growth a secret that had eluded British politicians in 1977 Margaret Thatcher as leader the opposition went so far as to say we are the European Party in the British Parliament and among the British people and we want to cooperate wholeheartedly with our partners in this joint venture remarks which might lead to her being expelled from the party today because the European called always sat uneasily on conservative shoulders for the Conservatives were the party of the nation not the party of globalization there has been a reaction therefore against Thatcherism even in the concern party and that reaction reached its climax in the election campaign earlier this year when the conservative manifesto declared we must reject the ideological templates provided by the Socialist Left and the libertarian right thus implicitly equating Margaret Thatcher with Jeremy Corbyn and instead embrace the mainstream view that recognizes the good that government can do later the manifesto said the government's agenda will not be allowed to drift to the right Theresa May is as distant from Thatcherism as Jeremy Corbyn is from Tony Blair traditionally conservatives were deeply concerned with the bonds of community today they face a fundamental conflict between the market economy economic liberalism on the one hand and a stable society on the other it is clear that a moral framework is needed if markets are to work effectively and the very real achievements of Thatcherism raise a key problem for conservatives a problem which no government has yet been able to resolve how do we reconcile the values of community trust and responsibility with a dynamic private enterprise society which seems to brush these values aside still despite all these changes there are unchanging themes in conservatism linking the party today with its founders in the 19th century because a sort of person who is likely to vote conservative today is probably the same sort of person who would have voted for the party in the 19th and 20th centuries what then is concerted and about let us go back finally once again to Disraeli the Tory party he declared in 1872 unless it is a National Party is nothing he meant I think three things by that the first was it must seek to represent all parts of society not just a political class it is he said a party formed from all the numerous classes in the rel classes alike and equal before the law but who's different conditions and differing aims give vigor and variety to our national life and it's because the Conservatives always seen themselves the party of the nation they've been so uneasy with the commitment to Europe secondly Disraeli assault a party as one of the United Kingdom's a whole a unionist party and for this reason the Conservatives are always resisted attempts by home rulers or nationalists with remind or Scotland to disintegrate the Kingdom just as they resist what many see of the attempt by the European Union to undermine the nation finally the Conservatives see themselves as a party which stands up for Britain in the international arena they conservative tend to the belief that on the whole Britain is more likely to be in the right in international affairs than in the wrong in domestic policy a conservative believes in the importance of private property as a means to personal independence and of creating a counterweight to the power of government a conservative is inclined to distrust government and suspicious of too much active government a conservative tends destruct series of government believing that experience and practical wisdom are far more important in running Affairs and political doctrines an ounce of practice a conservative will insist is worth more than a ton of theory there is therefore a considerable degree of continuity and conservative beliefs or perhaps I should say instinct a conservative today believes in the same sorts of things as his ancestors did in the 19th and 20th century whether these instincts and beliefs are sound or not I leave it to you to decide you [Applause]

Channel: Gresham College

Views: 68,018

Keywords: gresham, gresham talk, gresham lecture, lecture, gresham college, gresham college lecture, gresham college talk, free video, free education, education, public lecture, Event, free event, free public lecture, free lecture, conservative, politics, election, brexit, political party, goverment

Id: rIlaLbCMa3U

Length: 59min 5sec (3545 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2017

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[u/zethien]

The first of a two part series speaking of the character, features, and origin of the conservative and liberal parties in the UK.

Second part here: The (UK) Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats - Professor Vernon Bogdanor