What is Conservatism?

Written by Alfred Tyrrell

Edited by Ramaa Ghatge

Read a right-wing newspaper - I know this is not most students' favourite pastime - and there is a lot of talk of who is a real conservative. Theresa May was derided as a liberal, Boris was lauded as a saviour, Liz Truss’ conservative agenda was supposedly brought down by the centrist blob, and Rishi is seen as a wet. Due to his failure, there is continual speculation over the future leader, with many MPs wanting to replace him with a ‘real conservative.’ I believe that the understanding of conservatism within the Conservative Party is completely backward. 

To show this I will explore the work of two of the most influential conservative philosophers, Burke and Oakeshott. Read Burke’s seminal work ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ and the objective of conservatism becomes clear. Burke wants to conserve. He is horrified at the destruction of institutions in the French Revolution, and predicts the anarchy that revolution will spark. Burke argues institutions, such as Britain’s monarchy and unwritten constitution, hold the wisdom of previous generations, and that this should not simply be thrown away in revolution. To conserve institutions is not to resist change, nor to be a reactionary. Burke is clear that without reform, countries cannot conserve. Gradual reform is necessary to progress society and to improve lives, which consequently prevents the spirit of revolution fostering. Oakeshott develops Burkes’ ideas further. For Oakeshott, ‘conservatism is no ideology’. There is no set of beliefs that conservatives proclaim, conservatism is relative to the society. Due to this, conservatives are driven by pragmatism rather than adherence to ideology. They pursue policies which have been tried, which have been successful, which are prudent, and which create tangible results for citizens. 

When the current Conservative party is viewed through this lens it becomes clear that their conception of conservativism is completely backwards. Liz Truss, the martyr for real conservatism, is no conservative. She ignored the Bank of England, an institution that predates Burke by one hundred years and one that a conservative would surely respect. She wanted to radically restructure the economy and civil service, which sounded more like an economic revolution than gradual reform. Her unfunded tax cuts do not reflect the prudence of Oakeshott and finally, she was deeply driven by ideology, the antithesis of pragmatism. Clearly, the economic policy goals of ‘real conservatives’ are deeply unconservative. Instead, they are better understood as classical liberals, more Gladstone than Disraeli.

Similarly, the social policy of the current Conservative Party does not match its name. The clearest example of this is Johnson’s Rwanda asylum scheme. This policy has in fact been tried, with Israel sending asylum seekers there from 2013-18. However, that is where the adherence to conservatism ends. Israel’s policy was deemed a failure and was stopped. Pragmatism demands that only successful policy is pursued, are therefore the scheme is not driven by conservatism. Instead, it is driven by a reactionary spirit which rails against all asylum seekers. 

To conclude, I will reflect on how returning to conservatism would shape the Conservative Party. Perhaps Conservatives would work to protect national institutions, rather than to undermine them. Instead of pontificating about defunding the BBC and attacking the National Trust, they would support them. This does not mean that these institutions are beyond reproach, they must be reformed, but reform is a quite separate process from revolution. Rather than rowing back on climate legislation, they would reframe the debate into a more traditional style. Conservatives want to conserve the British countryside, its habitats, its ecology, and its way of life. Conservatives would accept the scientific consensus and would work for a pragmatic solution to climate problems. Finally, they might reform the leviathan of the public finances, the NHS. Since 2016, there has been little to no progress on how this important institution can be reformed to give more successful outcomes and to protect its long-term future. This conservative policy platform would move the party towards the centre of British politics. Rather than Boris or Truss, it would be more Cameron and May, two figures who are continually (and incorrectly) disparaged as unconservative by right-wingers. Perhaps a shift to conservatism would move polling amongst 18-24-year-olds closer to the 30% achieved in 2010 rather than the 7% predicted now. Additionally, perhaps it would avoid a 1997-level electoral wipeout. To finish I will remind any ‘real conservatives’ that the more centrist candidate has won every election since 1987, and this streak will not come to an end this year.