Description
The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics reveals the true nature of Conservative Party politics by examining the centrality of the myth of One Nation. The power and longevity of such a concept is crucial to any understanding of the success of the Conservative Party, and this analysis of One Nation helps us to lay bare the kernel of Conservative party politics. The use of the term One Nation clearly matters for Conservative Party politics—not just in its 'ancestral' use emanating from Disraeli's 1840s novels and his late nineteenth century rhetoric—but also through Baldwin's speeches and to the failure of John Major to replicate such a serene and contented image of the Nation in the 1990s. But, as a concept for the Conservatives, it means so much more than mere imagery. It has been successfully utilized in their 'palaeontological' approach to their history in order to give the impression that only the Party puts 'Nation' before any sectional interest, that only the Conservative Party, as the national Party, has the ability to assuage and balance the plurality of competing interests on behalf of the Nation. It is because of this long and successful utilization of the term 'One Nation' that so many within the Party are so keen to lay claim to it.
Table of Contents
Chapter One Introduction: One Nation, Food For Thought
1. The Chapters and the Thesis
2. Mythical Origins: Disraeli On England
3. The Myth Incarnate
4. Blue Moods and Black-Balls
5. The Context of Influence
Chapter Two Ethos and Doctrine in the Conservative Party
1. Conservative ideology
2. Conservative Principles
3. Political Recrudescence
Chapter Three The Thracian Boxer and Ideological Movement
1. The Pamphlets: ‘Let the Dog See the Rabbit’
2. Forecast is for Dry to Wet, Then Dry Again
3. Mapping Conservative Policy Preferences
4. Appendix to Chapter Three
Chapter Four Skilled Propaganda From Ill-Intentioned ‘Friends’
1. A Great Moving Left Show
2. Retrospective Procrustean Polemics
3. Concessionary Conservatism
Chapter Five Factions, Tendencies and ‘Bondstones’?
1. Post-War: Reform and/or Progress?
2. No Turning Back to PEST
3. Conservative Typologies: towards ‘Topsy’ Dimensions
4. ‘Bondstone Groups’
Chapter Six One Nation, but which?
1. The Devolution Dilemma of a Rebounding ‘Scottish Card’
2. The ‘English Question’
3. Civis Britannicus sum?
4. Cameron’s One Nation Conundrum
Chapter Seven ‘One Europe or No Nation’?
1. The Party of Europe and ‘One Europe’?
2. Merchant Shipping with a Malign Form of Maastricht
3. The Euro-Ratchet Halted or Withdrawal?
Chapter Eight Conclusion: Further Refreshment at the Springs of Doctrine
1. Back to the Future: The Responsible Society
2. In Conclusion: Cameron Conservatism.
Bibliography
Author(s)
David Seawright, David Seawright is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Leeds and a co-director of the Members of Parliament Project. His previous works include An Important Matter of Principle and (edited with David Baker) Britain for and Against Europe?
Reviews
"The label, One Nation, has been central to the politics of British Conservatism for nearly 150 years. Often used as code in internal conflicts or as short-hand for a complex electoral strategy, it has seldom been analysed systematically. David Seawright’s book addresses and remedies this by exploring the evolution of the concept of One Nation politics, locating it in the party’s history and demonstrating its continued importance in contemporary Conservatism. The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics is a significant contribution to our understanding Conservative politics in Britain." --Andrew Taylor, Professor of Politics,University of Sheffield.
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"David Seawright knows his subject backwards. His book is a persuasive blend of history and social science: it demonstrates definitively that One Nation politics, far from being some kind of centrist alternative to Thatcherism, has always been a microcosm of the creative tensions that have made the Conservative Party, at its best, Britain’s natural party of government." --Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron
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"David Seawight’s new book offers an important contribution to understanding the Conservative Party in Britain as it returns to centre stage. Meticulously researched, the book sets the party into historical context focussing on the idea of One Nation. But One Nation Conservatism discussed here is presented in a new, more sophisticated and nuanced way. More than a scholarly work, it presents the challenges that David Cameron will have to meet, especially in the difficult economic and financial context he is likely to inherit. This book should be read by anyone interested in where British politics is heading over the next decade" --Professor James Mitchell, Author of Conservatives and the Union
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"For nearly 200 years, says Seawright, the Conservative Party has claimed to be the only force that could forge disparate unruly elements of Britain into a single country, and over the past few years, many factions in the party have tried to capture that flag. He examines the competing claims, while emphasizing the centrality of One Nation to any fundamental understanding of Conservative Party politics as a whole. He analyzes both the conceptual use of the term and the formation of the first One Nation faction of Conservative Members of Parliament during the 1950s. That dual theoretical and empirical approach allows him to explore how and why a party that makes such emphatic claims to enduring values has such a proclivity to generational change." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
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