is the second-largest
Political Party in the
United Kingdom and the most successful party in political history based on election victories. It is the second oldest political party in the world behind the
Democratic Party of the
United States . Its current leader is
David Cameron , who as
Leader Of The Opposition heads the
Shadow Cabinet .
The Conservative Party is descended from the
Tory Party , one of the two ruling parties of 18th and 19th Century British Politics, and its members are still commonly referred to as ''Tories''. Though the Conservatives were in government for a substantial part of the
19th and
20th Centuries , since losing the
1997 Election to the
Labour Party under
Tony Blair , they have been in 'opposition' in Parliament. The last Conservative Prime Minister was
John Major .
The Conservatives are a member of the
International Democrat Union and its
European Section . Within the
European Parliament they are members of an informal bloc called the
European Democrats (ED), which sits in a coalition arrangement with the
EPP as the
EPP-ED group. Cameron has announced his intention to end the partnership between the
Eurosceptic Conservative ED and the more euro-integrationist
Christian Democratic EPP, although the complexity of this move has been criticized by some in the party.
The Party's official, though infrequently used, name is . This formal name is a hangover from the 1894 merger with the
Liberal Unionist Party , and an echo of the party's defence (1886-1921) of what they then saw as the need to maintain the
Union Of Great Britain And Ireland . During this period the party and its allies were often referred to as the "Unionist Party". Following the establishment of the
Irish Free State , "Conservative" came back into prominence in
England And Wales , though "Unionist" remained, referring to the Party's support for British sovereignty in
Northern Ireland in opposition to Irish nationalist and republican aspirations. In Scotland the
Scottish Unionist Party , who were independent of the Conservative and Unionist Party until 1965, were the main face of the party. Similarly the
Ulster Unionist Party supported the Conservatives for many decades in the
House Of Commons and took the Conservative
Whip . However, and in contrast to Scotland, this arrangement broke down in the aftermath of the imposition of direct rule in Northern Ireland in 1972. A number of affiliated Conservative organisations, such as the grouping of Conservative electoral agents, also style themselves 'Conservative and Unionist'.
The electoral symbol of the Conservative party is a hand holding a torch. Its present motto, adopted by the Party on
6 December 2005 , is ''Change to Win – Win for Britain''. This replaces the previous slogan, ''Today's Britain Tomorrow's Conservatives''. The official party colours are red, white and blue, though blue is most generally associated with the party in contrast to the red of the Labour Party.
, leader of the Conservative party]]
The Conservative party, as the largest in the British Parliament after the
Labour Party , provides the
Official Opposition to the Labour Government of Tony Blair. As of
7 May 2005, Labour holds a 64-member majority in the
House Of Commons , with 353
Members Of Parliament ; the Conservatives provide 196 Members of Parliament and the
Liberal Democrats follow with 63 Members.
Conservative leaders since 1997 have faced difficulties in returning the party to being a serious contender for government.
John Major 's successor,
William Hague , resigned after a second landslide defeat in 2001.
Iain Duncan Smith , the leader after 2001, was deposed in a vote of no confidence in 2003, to be followed by
Michael Howard . Howard oversaw a marked reduction the Labour majority at the
2005 General Election , but the day after the poll he announced that he would resign "sooner rather than later", citing his age as the principal reason for his resignation. The party had only marginally increased its share of the national vote to 32.3%, and though the Conservatives had narrowly overtaken the ruling Labour Party in popularity in England, and retaken a few parliamentary seats back from the Liberal Democrats, they still had 158 fewer Members of Parliament than the Labour Party ensuring a third consecutive defeat.
A historic third term for their Labour Party opponents underlined the need for serious change within the Conservative Party. A fourth leadership contest in as many years resulted in December of 2005 in the election of
David Cameron , beating the early favourite
David Davis in a ballot of the nationwide party membership and with a mandate to reform and realign the party to a more centrist position in British politics. Though figures on the left have tried to make political capital of Cameron's education at
Eton College , a successful but privileged fee-paying school, much of the right-leaning British press have so far lionised the youthful and moderate Cameron. Some commentators have named him the 'heir to Blair', as recent UK opinion polls give the Conservative Party a lead over a Labour Party led either by Prime Minister Tony Blair or his most likely successor
Gordon Brown .
The internal organisation of the Conservative Party is a contrast between constituency parties who dominate in the selection of candidates and election of party leaders, and a central administration (Conservative Central Office) which leads in the financing and organisation of elections. The party in parliament and the leader of the party provide the core of daily political activity, and form policy in consultation with the central administration. As with Labour, party membership has long been declining and often falls below 100 in parliamentary seats where a Conservative candidate is unlikely ever to be elected. Nevertheless, following the dramatic decline in membership of the Labour party in the last 10 years, and a recent boost in Conservative party membership following the election of David Cameron as party leader, the Conservative party now has more members (around 290,000) than the Labour party and Liberal Democrats combined (around 200,000 and 70,000 respectively).
According to accounts filed with the
Electoral Commission it had income in the year ending December 31, 2004 of about £20 million and expenditure of about £26 million.
{Link without Title}
Conservative Party policies are generally supportive of reduced government intervention in most matters of state, in particular in the economic sphere (e.g. through tax cuts and
Privatisation s). But they do support increased government intervention in certain aspects the social or cultural sphere (e.g. through the defence of the traditional family and through restrictions on
Immigration ).
Today, they are also noted for their broadly
Eurosceptic stance. Many commentators believe that their failures in UK politics from 1997 were partly the result of continued internal tension between Europhiles (such as
Kenneth Clarke and
Michael Heseltine ) and Eurosceptics (such as
John Redwood and
William Hague ). However, the Conservative party has in recent years largely come to terms with these issues, or has at least ceased to argue quite as publicly over what undoubtedly remains a contentious issue within the Party. Consecutive Conservative Party Leaders have pleaded for their MPs to unite behind them over the issue of Europe and it would appear that, for the time being at least, this plea is being heeded. Even the archetypal pro-European, Kenneth Clarke, has reluctantly accepted the party line on this contentious issue.
Conservatives are also generally opposed to
Devolution to the national and English regions of the UK, preferring a unitary centralised state. They opposed devolution to
Wales and
Scotland in 1999, whilst supporting it for
Northern Ireland , as well as the unsuccessful attempt at devolution of power to
North East England in 2004. However, since the New Labour government introduced devolution the Conservatives have pledged not to reverse the situation to its pre-1997 status.
During much of the twentieth century the Conservative Party was considered the "natural party of government", a position in part founded upon the party's reputation for pragmatism and economic competence. The contrast with Labour's perceived poor twentieth-century record remained strong, even as the Conservative governments of the
1980s presided over mass
Unemployment (peaking at 11% in 1986) on a scale which had not been seen since the
1930s . The party's economic reputation was, however, dealt a blow by the 1992
Black Wednesday debacle, in which billions of pounds were spent trying to keep the pound within the European
ERM system of exchange rates at an overvalued rate. This, combined with the deep recession of the early
1990s , allowed
Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown to claim, from the Conservatives, the mantle of economic competence. Many on both the
Left and
Right have since argued that
New Labour 's embrace of market forces and public sector modernisation amounted to little more than stealing the Conservative Party's economic clothes.
Though the Thatcherite reforms of the
1980s , which sought to lower rising inflation by radical measures (leading in part to higher unemployment), reversed a situation in Britain of relative economic decline, the Conservatives have yet to regain their reputation for economic competence. As a result of the dominance of the
Labour Party in debates over economic policy, recent Conservative election campaigns have focused much more on low-salience social or cultural issues such as
Crime ,
Immigration and
Asylum . The party has now pledged to match Labour spending plans - a reverse of the situation in 1997.
Following the 1997 general election, the Conservative Party opposed Labour's flagship policy for economic stability: the decision to commit the
Bank Of England to a goal of low and stable
Inflation , and to grant it independent control of
Interest Rates to meet this target. Economists have long advocated independent central banks as a means of depoliticising
Monetary Policy and overcoming the problem of
Time Inconsistency (a situation in
Game Theory which shows how a policymaker who cares about both low unemployment and low inflation will achieve neither). Moreover, the 1990s saw a number of countries (e.g.
New Zealand ) pursue such reforms to great effect. However, the Conservatives opposed Bank of England independence, which they felt was a prelude to British membership of the European single currency. They also expressed concern over the removal of monetary policy from democratic control. In the end though, the popularity of this policy amongst economists and the financial community, along with its success at keeping down inflation, has led the Conservatives to renege on their initial opposition and embrace Labour's reform.
The Conservative Party remains committed in principal to a programme of tax cuts, part of the intellectual legacy of the Thatcher years. Newly elected leader David Cameron has said that the country needed a "dynamic and competitive economy" but he also argued that the proceeds of any growth should be shared between both "tax reduction and extra public investment".
Aside from tax cuts, the most notable Conservative economic policy of recent years has probably been opposition to the
European Single Currency . Anticipating the growing
Euroscepticism within his party,
John Major negotiated a British opt-out from the single currency in the 1992
Maastricht Treaty , although several members of Major's cabinet (
Kenneth Clarke ,
Michael Heseltine ,
Stephen Dorrell ) were personally supportive of EMU participation. Following Major's resignation after the 1997 defeat, the Conservatives have had a succession of leaders (
William Hague ,
Iain Duncan Smith ,
Michael Howard and
David Cameron ) from the eurosceptic wing of British politics, and these men have positioned the party firmly against future EMU integration. This policy appears to be broadly in-line with the mood of the British electorate although voters typically rank Europe as a low importance issue next to education or healthcare, partly explaining why the Conservatives have been unable to convert their most popular policy into actual votes.
The Conservative Party has historically been associated with
Social Conservatism , views which have often been reflected in the party's social policies. One of the more controversial examples of Conservative social conservatism was
Section 28 of the
Local Government Act 1988 , which outlawed "the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of
Homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". This legislation was regarded by some as
Homophobic , and is seen to have driven many liberal-minded individuals away from the party (most notably former Conservative MP
Shaun Woodward , who defected to Labour in 1999 after
William Hague sacked him from the shadow cabinet for refusing to support Section 28 in a parliamentary vote). However according to opinion polls the public was in favour of retaining Section 28
{Link without Title} .
Many Conservative modernisers have claimed that the traditional and authoritarian nature of past Conservative social policies played a major role in the decline of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. For example,
David Willetts has criticised what he termed "the war on
Single Parents ", whilst former Conservative Party Chairman
Brian Mawhinney observed that the party had "created the impression that if you weren't in a traditional nuclear family, then we weren't interested in you".
Since 1997, a debate has therefore raged within the party between modernisers such as
Michael Portillo , who believe that the Conservatives should change their social views in line with 21st century Britain, and traditionalists such as
William Hague and
David Davis , who argue that the party should stick to its traditional conservative social agenda. The Conservative Party grassroots have pushed in the latter direction, helping the right wing of the party win many of these political battles. This famously resulted in William Hague's and Michael Howard's pre-election swings to the right (in 2001 and 2005, respectively), and the election of the stop-
Ken Clarke candidate
Iain Duncan Smith in 2001.
Theresa May famously remarked that the result of all this was that the Conservatives were perceived as "the nasty party".
One issue on which the Conservative's libertarian and authoritarian tendencies were visibly in conflict was the party's position on
ID Cards . At first it supported a measure that some considered valuable in the fight against crime and terrorism. However, before the 2005 election, Shadow Home Secretary
David Davis decided to position himself against the introduction of ID cards. At the same time, he argued within the Shadow Cabinet that escalating cost estimates and the need to protect libertarian values meant that the proposals should be opposed. Subsequently, the party altered its line, first allowing a free vote on ID cards and then opposing them outright. This was viewed by some as a victory for Davis, and a clever means for him to attempt to reach out to liberal Conservatives before the 2005 leadership election (which Davis subsequently lost).
The 2005 election saw the first black Conservative MP,
Adam Afriyie , elected in
Windsor . This contrasts positively with the situation in
Cheltenham thirteen years earlier, when the black Conservative candidate
John Taylor was defeated defending a marginal Conservative seat, allegedly due to the unwillingness of local Conservative voters to support a non-white candidate. Conservative modernisers point to Afriyie's election as evidence that the party is changing, though opponents argue that the election of a single black MP doesn't count for much against the perceived right-wing
Anti-immigrant campaign fought by the Conservatives in 2005.
For much of the 20th century the Conservative party has taken a broadly
Atlanticist stance in relations with the
United States favouring close ties with America and a range of other similarly-aligned nations such as Canada, Australia and Japan. The Conservatives have generally favoured a diverse range of international alliances, ranging from
NATO to the
Commonwealth .
Close US-British relations have been an element of Conservative foreign policy for over half a century. Winston Churchill, in his post-war ministry (1951-1955), built up a strong relationship with the Eisenhower Administration in the US. Harold Macmillan demonstrated a similarly close relationship with the following
Democrat administration of J.F. Kennedy. Though the US-British relationship in foreign affairs has often been termed a 'Special Relationship', a term coined by Winston Churchill, this has often been observed most clearly where leaders in each country are of a similar political stripe. Former Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher built a close relationship with American President
Ronald Reagan in his opposition to the former
Soviet Union , but
John Major was largely unsuccessful in his personal contacts with former
President s
George H. W. Bush and
Bill Clinton . Out of power and perceived as largely irrelevant, recent Conservative leaders have struggled to forge personal relationships with US Presidents. The strong bilateral relationship between
George W. Bush and Tony Blair would likely remain should Cameron or another Conservative leader take power alongside a
Republican US President, or alongside a
Democratic President with a similar view on international affairs.
As a direct result of the party's strong commitment to an Atlanticist and free-market foreign policy, no subject has more divided the Conservative Party in recent history than the UK's relations with the
European Union . Though the principal architect of Britain’s entry into the then-
Common Market (later
European Community and
European Union ) was Conservative PM
Edward Heath , and both
Winston Churchill and
Harold MacMillan were in favour of some form of European union, the bulk of contemporary Conservative opinion is opposed to closer economic and particularly political relations with Europe. Divisions on Europe came to the fore under the premiership of
John Major (1990-1997) when the slow process of integration within the EU forced tensions to the surface; a hard core of
Eurosceptic Members of Parliament took advantage of the small Conservative majority in Parliament to oppose Government policy on the
Maastricht Treaty and, by so doing, undermined the Government's credibility.
In recent years the Conservative Party has become more clearly Eurosceptic as the Labour Government has found itself unable to make a positive case for further integration and as Eurosceptic or pro-withdrawal parties such as the
UK Independence Party have made strong showings in UK elections to the European Parliament. Though providing little clear benefit in recent parliamentary elections, the Conservative Party has adopted a policy on Europe (supported by the new Conservative leader
David Cameron and his equally
Eurosceptic Foreign Affairs spokesman
William Hague ) which would include the renegotiation of key EU treaties and the return of a number of powers back to the UK; opinion polls generally identify Conservative policy on Europe as closer to public opinion than that of either the Labour or Liberal Democrat parties. The degree to which a Conservative Government could implement policy on Europe would depend directly on the willingness of other EU member states to agree to such policies. Much could rest on the potential threat or risk of British withdrawal from the EU should other states prove unwilling.
Beyond relations with the United States, Commonwealth and the EU, the Conservative Party has generally supported a pro-free trade foreign policy within the mainstream of international affairs. The degree to which Conservative Governments have supported interventionist or non-interventionist Presidents in the US has often varied with the personal relations between US President and British Prime Minister.
The origins of the Conservative Party go back to the Tory faction of 1678-
1681 which opposed the
Exclusion of the
Duke Of York , later King James VII&II, from the order of succession to the throne. The term 'Conservative' was first used by
George Canning in the
1820s and was suggested as a title for the party by
John Wilson Croker in the
1830s and later officially adopted under the aegis of
Sir Robert Peel , but the party is still often referred to as the 'Tory Party' (not least because newspaper editors find it a convenient shorthand when space is limited). The Tories more often than not formed the government from the accession of King
George III (in 1760) until the
Great Reform Act of 1832.
Widening of the franchise in the 19th century led the party to popularise its approach, especially under
Lord Derby and
Benjamin Disraeli who carried through their own Reform Act in 1868. After 1886 the Conservatives allied with
Liberal Unionists who opposed their party's support for
Irish Home Rule and held office under
Lord Salisbury for all but three of the following twenty years, but when it split over tariff reform, the party suffered a landslide election defeat.
World War I saw an all-party coalition and the Conservatives then stayed in Coalition with half of the Liberals for four years after the armistice. Eventually, grassroots pressure forced the breakup of the Coalition and the party regained power on its own. It again dominated the political scene in the inter-war period, from 1931 in a '
National Government ' coalition. However in the
1945 General Election the party lost power in a landslide to the
Labour Party .
After the end of the
Second World War , the Conservatives accepted the reality of the Labour government's nationalisation programme and creation of the 'welfare state', but when it returned to power promoted an economic boom, under
Winston Churchill and later
Harold Macmillan , which led back to prosperity in the
1950s .
The
Heath government of 1970-
74 was notable for taking Britain into the
EEC . This was something which
Harold Macmillan had tried, but failed to achieve and a decision which would have a significant effect on the party over subsequent decades.
In 1975
Margaret Thatcher became leader and converted it to support a
Monetarist economic programme; after her election victory in 1979 her government became known for a free-market approach and privatisation of public utilities. Here, the Conservatives experienced a high-point, Thatcher leading the Conservatives to two landslide election victories in 1983 and 1987. However, she was deeply unpopular in some sections of society, initially for the massive unemployment caused by the economic reforms, and later for what was seen as a heavy-handed response to the
Miners' Strike , and for her introduction of the Community Charge, known by its opponents as the
Poll Tax and repealed in 1993 in favour of the
Council Tax , essentially the previous
Rates system by another name.
However, Thatcher's increasing unpopularity and unwillingness to change policies perceived as vote-losing, together with internal tensions over European policy, led to her being deposed in 1990. She was replaced by
John Major who won an unexpected election victory in 1992. Major's government suffered a political blow when the
Pound Sterling was forced out of the
European Exchange Rate Mechanism later that year, which lost the party much of its reputation for good financial stewardship. In addition the party was increasingly accused in the media of
Sleaze . An effective opposition campaign by the Labour Party led to a landslide defeat in 1997.
William Hague (1997 - 2001) portrayed himself at first as a moderniser with a common touch. However by the time the
2001 General Election came he concentrated on Europe, asylum seekers and tax cuts whilst declaring that only the Conservative Party could "Save the Pound". He was seen as a political lightweight by many, and was widely mocked for his claim that he drank 14 imperial pints (8 l) of beer in a day in his youth. Despite a low turnout, the election resulted in a net gain of a single seat for the Conservative Party and William Hague's resignation as party leader.
Iain Duncan Smith (2001-2003) (often known as IDS) was a strong
Eurosceptic but this did not define his leadership - indeed it was during his tenure that Europe ceased to be an issue of division in the party as it united behind calls for a referendum on the proposed
European Union Constitution . Duncan Smith's
Shadow Cabinet contained many new and unfamiliar faces but despite predictions by some that the party would lurch to the right the team instead followed a pragmatic moderate approach to policy. After losing a vote of confidence, Duncan Smith remained as caretaker leader until
Michael Howard ,
MP for
Folkestone and
Hythe , was elected to the post of leader (as the only candidate) on
6 November 2003 .
Howard announced radical changes to the way the
Shadow Cabinet would work. He slashed the number of members by half, with
Theresa May and
Tim Yeo each shadowing two government departments. Minor departments still have shadows but have been removed from the cabinet, and the post of Shadow Leader of the
House Of Commons was abolished. The role of party chairman was also split into two, with
Lord Saatchi responsible for the party machine, and
Liam Fox handling publicity.
Michael Portillo was offered a position but refused, due to his plans to step down from Parliament at the next election.
In the
2005 General Election , the Conservative Party made a very slight recovery, increasing their share of the vote by around 0.6% (up to 32.3%). However, due to a large fall in the Labour vote and ''
Tactical Unwind '' by
Liberal Democrat voters (many of whom were no longer willing to back the Labour party in Labour vs. Conservative marginal seats), the Conservatives made a net gain of 33 seats. This helped slash the Labour majority from 167 seats down to 66 and made the Conservatives the largest party in England in terms of vote share. The day after the election, on
May 6 , Howard announced that he believed himself too old to lead the party into another election campaign, and he would therefore be stepping down to allow a new leader the time to prepare for the next election. Howard said that he believed that the party needed to amend the rules governing the election of the Party leader, and that he would allow time for that to happen before resigning.
David Cameron was victorious in the subsequent leadership campaign. Cameron beat his closest rival
David Davis by a margin of more than two to one, taking 134,446 votes to 64,398, and has announced his intention to reform and realign the Conservative Party in a manner similar to that achieved by the Labour Party in opposition under Tony Blair. British opinion polls have since begun to indicate a small but significant swing in the Conservative's favour, often putting Cameron ahead of either PM Blair or Blair's most likely successor
Gordon Brown at a future General Election; the perceived realignment of the Conservatives to a more moderate and centrist position seems also to have caused a leadership crisis within the Liberal Democrats, who might have most to lose from a resurgent Conservative Party. David Cameron was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Witney constituency in West Oxfordshire in June 2001
There are three main political factions within the modern Conservative Party:
were the dominant faction for most of the post-war era, providing Conservative Prime Ministers such as
Harold MacMillan (
1957 -
1963 ) and
Edward Heath (
1970 -
1974 ). The name comes from a famous phrase of
Benjamin Disraeli and the basis of One Nation Conservatism is a belief in social cohesion, and advocates therefore support social institutions that maintain harmony between people of different classes (and more recently, people of different races or religions). These institutions have typically included the
Welfare State , the
BBC , and
Local Government . One Nation Conservatives are usually seen as being socially liberal, since tolerance is viewed as an important factor in social cohesion. Many are also supporters of the
European Union , perhaps stemming from an extension of the cohesion principle to the international level, though some are strongly hostile to the EU (such as
Sir Peter Tapsell ). Prominent One Nation Conservatives in the modern party include
Kenneth Clarke ,
Malcolm Rifkind and
Damian Green , and the faction is associated with the internal pressure group, the
Tory Reform Group .
The wing of the party achieved dominance after the election of
Margaret Thatcher as party leader in 1975. The Thatcherite political agenda is mainly concerned with reducing the role of the government in the economy, and to this end they support tax cuts,
Privatisation of public services and a reduction in the size of the welfare state. Though Thatcher herself was socially conservative, her supporters harbour a range of social opinions from the liberal views of
Michael Portillo to the traditional conservatism of
William Hague and
David Davis . Many, but not all, Thatcherites are
Eurosceptic , since they view many European regulations as unwelcome interference in the market. Thatcherite europhiles include
Leon Brittan and
Quentin Davies . Many take inspiration from Thatcher's famous anti-EU Bruges speech in 1988, in which she declared that "we have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level". Thatcherites also tend to be
Atlanticist , dating back to the close friendship between Thatcher and US President
Ronald Reagan .
The so-called ''', the
Unitary British State and the traditional family. To this end, they emphasise Britain's
Protestant heritage, they oppose any transfer of power away from the state (either downwards to the nations and regions or upwards to the
European Union ), and they are highly critical of homosexuals, single parents and other non-traditional family groupings. They are strongly opposed to immigration into the UK, and some have in the past professed racist opinions. They also are known for their support for capital punishment. Prominent MPs from this wing of the party include
Andrew Rosindell and
Edward Leigh - himself a prominent
Roman Catholic , notable in a faction marked out by its support for the established Church of England, as mentioned above.. It should be noted that this faction has never been particularly strong within the parliamentary party, although its strength within the rank-and-file party membership means that it wields considerable power over Conservative social policy. Gay Conservative MP
Alan Duncan famously once referred to this wing as a "''
Taleban tendency''" within the party. Historically, many Conservatives from this faction were members of the
Monday Club , and more recently they have participated in the
Cornerstone Group .
Roger Scruton , a conservative philosopher, is a good example of this group; his writing rarely touches on the economy, but comments on providing a conservative perspective on social issues.
Note that not all Conservative MPs can be easily placed within these three groupings. For example,
John Major was the ostensibly "Thatcherite" candidate during the
1990 Leadership Election , but he consistently promoted One Nation Conservatives to the higher reaches of his cabinet during his time as Prime Minister. These included
Kenneth Clarke (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and
Michael Heseltine (Deputy Prime Minister).
Although Europe is no longer seen as a major issue for the Conservatives, many pro-European members have had to moderate their views in the light of growing Euroscepticism. Some grassroots members have called for the expulsion of remaining pro-European MPs.
A minority group of Conservatives could be said to belong to a
Libertarian or social-liberal wing. This faction, which includes Alan Duncan and Peter Lilley, calls for the combining of social freedom with economic freedoms. In Alan Duncan's book Saturns Children (1995) the MP called for all drugs to be legalised.
A fifth group are the so-called 'modernisers' currently led by David Cameron. This include many moderate social-liberals. Their conservatism combines traditional conservatism with green politics, social-liberalism, a belief in social justice, an internationalist concern for global poverty and euroscepticism.
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft (2005), ''The Strange Death of Tory England''
