Bonar Law’s words in 1922 apply to the present leader: “The party elects a leader, and that leader chooses the policy, and if the party does not like it, they have to get another leader.”
By seeing off Le Pen and electing the most ideologically pro-EU president since Giscard d’Estaing, France has changed the game.
The Conservative rebel, AKA Douglas Hogg, argued that a unilateral guarantee would grant the Government the moral high ground.
Better pre-school education, more help in need for those who have contributed more, a higher minimum wage, support for grandparents – all fit Conservative ideals.
The claim that Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Victorian values’ meant the reintroduction of ‘unregulated markets’ is simply untrue.
Few have explained why better than Lord Hailsham when he addressed the Conservative Christian Fellowship nearly 25 years ago.
The option to “merely sit” is not available at present, since there is currently a battle of ideas between conservatism and its foes, and also one taking place within conservative thought itself.