- Before the Great Reform Act, parties, as we know them today, were non-existence but they acted like a group of people with like minds in the legislative.
- They were bound together by shared ideas, friendships or family.
- Electoral reform meant parties began to emerge.
- The Conservative party emerged from the Tory party in 1830, its birth can be dated to Robert Peel’s Manifesto in 1934.
- The party has had 2 extended periods in office: 1951-64 and 1979-97
One
Nation Conservatism:
- Believe in pragmatism and a belief in a gradual improvement founded on experience.
- This was seen as a form of paternalist conservatism which favoured pluralism and social inclusion. Authority should be centralised by the state should be benevolent and care for the neediest
- They were committed to Slow gradual change, a mixed economy with state intervention, a welfare state, internationalism with European integration.
Thatcherism:
- The late 1970s and 80s saw liberation conservatism dubbed as the new right
- A belief in monetarism, free-market economies and neo-liberalism
- Support family units and have traditional views on sexual orientation
- Marked the death of the postwar consensus and a more adversarial politics
- They wanted: Deregulation, privatisation, limited power on trade unions, limited state intervention, more on national sovereignty, a more limited state welfare provision.
Conservatives
Under Cameron:
- Referred to as the ‘heir to Blair’
- Recognised how bad the party was doing and aimed to detoxify them
- Election pledge in 2010 to ‘fix broken Britain’
Cameron
On The Political Spectrum:
- Dubbed as the ‘New Tories’ and referred to ‘liberal conservatism’
- Richard Kelly offered 3 judgements on it…
- Represented as a flagrant capitulation to New Labour
- Subtle continuation of Thatcherism
- Amounted to little then shameless opportunism
- The EU ref was seen as evidence of such opportunism after a challenge from UKIP
The
Substance of Policy:
- Manifestos had style over substance e.g replacing human rights act with a UK bill of rights
- Remained under how he wanted to reconcile his desire to adapt tradition liberal positions on the environment with social welfare
- Rolling back the frontiers of the state
- Engaged in the collation meant he had to back up on some promises.
Conservatives
Under May:
- Most of the focus was on Brexit, she had moved away from Cameron’s policies.
- Economically: Wants to end austerity and focus on JAMs; raise personal tax allowance; ruling out a rise in tax. Aims to undercut by a pledge to cut corporation tax and business tax
- Controversially: Winter fuel allowance to take away people’s assets to pay for care when you are elderly (Labour deemed this as the dementia tax) which was then met with a U-turn. Also pleased to remove the triple lock on pensions.
- Education: Reintroduction of grammar schools; replacement of free school lunches to free school breakfasts to cut costs which were met with campaigning by chefs such as Jamie Oliver.
- Environment: Support for fracking and no major support meant it was down the list but she introduced two new departments, one for leaving the EU and one for trade.