The Conservative Party Flashcards
What is the conservative party
The party of pragmatism
What is the Conservatives sterotyped for?
Old, rich, white men
Are they commited to ideology?
Not as much as other parties, far more pragmatic than other parties
How old is it?
On of the oldest ideologiess in the world
Why/ how did it emerge
As a response to the french revolution
What is the core concerned with?
Desire to preserve and retian and maintain existing intitutions/ structures.
What are the types of conservatism
Tradiotional
One nation
New right/neo
Contemporary
What is one nation? How was it created?
Created as a response to industrialisation and capitalism. Benjamin Disraeli. Paternalistic society prioritising social obligation over individualism. Criticised for causing high levels of inflation and individual dependency upon the state.
What is new right ? How was it created?
Adam Smith, regulation reduces market flexibility ultimately raising unemployment. The invisible hand of the state. Advanced by Friedrich Hayek, opposed social, economic and philosophical doctrine that influences the growth of social democracy. Post 1979 arguable every pm has embraced neoliberal economics to some degree.
What were Thatchers policies in 1975?
- Cutting taxes
- Reducing public expenditure
- Privatising nationalised industries
- Reforming employment laws
- Challenging trade union power
- Selling off council houses.
What happened to trade unions under Thatchers power
13.2- 7 million
Name some of the things privatised
- British Aerospace
- Cable and wireless
- Britoil
- Associated British ports
- Enterprise oil
- British gas
- British airways
- British steel and others…
What did privatisation do?
Reduced govt expenditure and financial exposure, part of broader drive for monetarism
What was preferable inlfation or unemployment
Inflation
What were the reasons for her sucess?
- ‘Right to Buy’ sale of council homes and flats from 1980
- Falklands war 1982
- Divided opposition
- Economic boom
- Reductions in direct taxation
What were Thatcheres policy failures?
- Deindustrialisation occurred with no follow-up plan
- Only the south of England benefitted substantially from economic growth, entrenching the ‘North/South divide’
- Monetarism didn’t work
- Poll tax
How did Majors first 18 months go?
Went well rode the wave of Thatchers sucess
What were Majors faults
- Black Wednesday crashing the Eu markets.
- Party was deeply divided over eu, Govt almost collapsed over passing Maastricht Treaty in 1993.
- Privatisation was accelerated, including industries to which the public were sympathetic
- Resurgent Labour Party ate the core of the Tory voters
- Tory scandals
What were some of the scandles under Major
o Neil Hamilton and Tim smith accepted bribes from Mohamed Al-Fayed to ask parliamentary questions in his interest
o Gary Waller’s fathered an illegitimate child with the secretary of another Tory MP
o David Ashby found sharing a bed with a male friend in France. To save money
o Stephan Milligan found dead, crossdressing and with satsuma in his mouth, after strangling himself in an autoerotic asphyxiation session
o Jonathan Aitken paid for prostitutes for Saudi businessmen in Paris Ritz.
o Robert Hughes had an affair with a constituent who came to him looking for help with an abusive relationship.
o Richard Springer had a threesome with his financier friend, and the financier’s Sunday school teacher girlfriend
o Jerry Hayes had an affair with an 18-year-old male party researcher
o Edwina Currie revealed in her diaries that she had an affair with major between 1984-88
What was the party named after the scandles?
The ‘nasty party’
Tell me about William Hague
1997-2001 Struggling to commit to set of policies, regularly changed direction. Poor relationship with voters. Resigned after 2001 election. Against the euro.
Tell me about Iain Duncan Smith
2001-2003 Portrayed himself as the ‘quiet man’ His own staff described himself as unprepared and hopeless with no ideas or policy direction. Vote of no confidence.
Tell me about Micheal Howard
Tried to fix party discipline, MPs would be punished severely for attracting any negative incredibly firm line to fix discipline.
