Traditional, One Nation Conservatism Versus New Right Conservatism

This essay will be discussing Traditional, One Nation Conservatism and New Right Conservatism to be able to answer the question “to what extent can the new right be seen to have departed from traditional conservative values?” It will cover the start of One Nation by Benjamin Disraeli, and Thatcher’s revolutionary contributions to the New Right.

In the UK today, the Conservative party is divided into two halves – One Nation and New Right. One Nation Conservatism was built upon the back of Traditional Conservatism, with the same values – Tradition, Human Imperfection, Natural Hierarchy (noblesse oblige), Organic Society, Authority and Property. One Nation Conservatives put emphasis on the Natural Hierarchy and believed that the wealthy had an obligation to look after the working class, whereas the New Right conservatives favored self-reliance and individualism in place of Noblesse Oblige. The New Right was developed in the 1960’s, almost twenty years after the Second World War had ended.

One Nation Conservatism was created by Benjamin Disraeli. He was born into a middle-class, Jewish family in Victorian Britain in 1804, a time when the Tory party was split. Before the industrial revolution in 1790, communities were small, and people would look after each other. Once the revolution had started, people were forced to move from their communities to factories for work, where the conditions were unsanitary and cramped. Health dramatically worsened. This no doubt had an influence on Disraeli’s thinking and his policies when he was Prime Minister (1868 & 1874 – 1880). Multiple policies were put in place between 1875 and 1878 to improve public health and hygiene. In 1875 the Artisans Dwelling Act was introduced, enabling councils to be able to clear slums, and build in place cleaner and safer houses for working families. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act was put in place in 1876, which prohibited harmful substances in food. Laws were also introduced in 1876 against the pollution of rivers. In 1878 Epping Forest in London was made a protected open space, banning people from destroying it and enabling any local person to enjoy it.

Before he was elected as Prime Minister, Disraeli was elected leader of a Conservative group called the ‘Young England’. The Young England group consisted of young Conservative thinkers who wanted to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor. During this time, Disraeli published 3 novels inspired by this. His most known novel was ‘Sybil’, also known as ‘The Two Nations’. The novel looked at the differences within the social classes and highlighted the stark differences between the rich and poor, comparing the poverty-stricken lives of the working class and the worry- and stress-free lives of the aristocrats. He used the novel to give suggestions on how to lessen the gap and create a ‘one nation’. One of the most successful policies to be passed whilst Disraeli was in power was the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act (1875) which he put in place to decriminalize the work of the Trade Unions and allow peaceful picketing and the Public Health Act 1875, improving the filthy living conditions in urban areas by providing better sanitation. Disraeli believed that for Britain to progress as a nation, the poorest people should be looked after.

Another One Nation Prime Minister is Harold Macmillan. Macmillan had similar ideas to Disraeli, and during his time in parliament, as Minister of Housing between 1951 and 1954 and Prime Minister 1957 until 1963, he helped build 300,000 houses within a year and improved the National Health Service. Macmillan’s policies were poised to improve the lives of the lower, working classes and lessen the distance between them and the rich. Macmillan was Prime Minister 12 years after the war ended, in a time when the country was still recovering from the war. Whilst the post-war consensus was created by the Labour government in 1945, other parties, apart from the left-wing of Labour and the free-market thinkers and right wings of the conservatives, shared many of the ideals of the consensus. The Policies included a commitment to employment, acceptance of trade unions, larger role for the state and a mixed economy, a welfare state was created out of taxation, and a belief that the state could play a positive role in creating equality through social engineering (Kavanagh, 2011)

16 years after Macmillan was voted out, Margaret Thatcher was elected in as Britain’s first female Prime Minister in 1979. People valued her ideals of Britain having strong leadership, and it could be argued that many people were in awe of having the nation’s first female prime minister. Thatcher was relatable, because she was not an aristocrat, and did not come from a noble family. She grew up without any luxury, no radio or running hot water. Her father worked as a grocery boy and eventually, he saved enough money to start his own business. His business grew due to the level of customer service he offered – he knew his customers and they knew him. This no doubt set Thatcher’s preference for entrepreneurism over old money. She got into Oxford University on scholarship, where she started to delve into the world of politics – starting with writing a paper on the faults of the conservative party. Thatcher became the youngest and only female Tory candidate for Dartford in 1950, who, at the time, had a Labour majority. Thatcher campaigned tirelessly, going into the parts of town where the everyday, working people were – the places that the Tories usually avoided. Her campaigning worked and she ended up increasing the Tory hold by 7000 votes.

Despite her growing popularity, she had to campaign even harder to get herself a seat in parliament. She eventually gained her seat in 1959 and became the Conservative leader in 1975. In 1979, Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. Thatcher is an excellent example of New Right Conservatism. She abandoned the ‘Noblesse Oblige’ principle of the conservatives before her, instead committing herself and her government to individualism and self-reliance. Once in power, Thatcher made changes previously set out post-war consensus. The government stopped consulting the unions and took the power away from the leaders and gave more power to the members themselves, she done this by making the unions more democratic and allowing the members to vote for the leaders and allow the members to leave without being at risk of losing their job. The government made a requirement for pre-strike ballots and made the unions responsible for any damage occurred in an illegal strike. The unions influence was lessened due to the retraction of income policies and rising unemployment.

Britain, “who was once the world’s leading capitalist nation, became the most state-owned country outside of the communist world” (Death of a Revolutionary, 2016). Thatcher made it clear that her government was not to be used as a ‘universal provider’ and people should either help themselves or look at the voluntary sector or the market for assistance. Whilst the socialists opposed economic freedom, Thatcher embraced it and wanted to work towards it. She wanted normal people to have the opportunity to have more than their state-owned homes, state-run jobs and transport. She put a stop to the state involvement of the major utilities. Industries such as the railways, coal and oil and steel were sold to private companies. In some industries, such as telecommunication, workers were encouraged to buy shares themselves, and despite years of the unions warning them against doing so, the members ignored them. 94% of steelworkers bought shares in the industry, and the national power shares were bought by 99% of workers. Giving the workers shares in the company they worked for improved production and attitudes and customer service had improved greatly across the nation, as they were the ones finally reaping the rewards of their hard labour. Wait lists drastically reduced for sought-after products such as mobile phones and gas cookers. Ordinary, working people were able to start and successfully run their own businesses, earning enough money to be able to buy their own houses, made possible by Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy. The Right to Buy was introduced by Thatcher to lessen the state’s involvement in housing. She sold council houses to its tenants at heavily discounted prices, a chance they would not have gotten under any other government leader.

Despite privatisation leading to a lot of the working-class becoming homeowners and owning their own businesses, not everybody saw Thatcher as a beacon of hope. The shipbuilding industry’s size decreased dramatically, and the steel and mining communities were ruined by the lack of government funding. The focus shifted from maintaining full employment to keeping inflation low and anybody who wanted welfare benefits had to be able to prove they needed them (Kavanagh, 2003). Because of this, there was very little respect for Thatcher and her government.

Thatcher’s government was successful due to a nationwide mistrust of the Labour party as they were so divided, and she had almost halved the nation’s debt. Despite this, there was also a big divide within the Conservative party. The upper-class Tory aristocrats were not happy that a girl from Grantham had come in and had abandoned their traditional policies. There was an upset about the working-class having money, and their attitudes towards it, they saw bragging of their riches and extravagant purchases as ‘grotesque’. Suddenly, a person was buying a house on their street who had made their money through their own business. Money was no longer a luxury only the aristocrats had, but something that a lot of people had and was now being earned by people with no qualifications. In 1990, Thatcher resigned from office after advice from her cabinet, stating that she would not be able to win the next election. Whilst members from her own party were delighted at her resignation, the working class were devastated, as they saw her as one of them, and the reason many of them had left the socialist routine of state-owned houses and low paying jobs.

In conclusion, the New Right were despised by the traditional Tories, they do have similar ideas. They both wanted little state involvement, believed in authority and stood by their traditional values of the church, monarchy and family. Property is an essential part of both of their ideals, and Thatcher’s Right to Buy schemes are still around today. However, traditional conservatives rule by their ‘noblesse oblige’ rule – look after those who can’t look after themselves and they do this with welfare benefits and state housing, whereas the new right wants to instead give people the tools to better themselves, and if they cannot or will not work hard, they will need to look at the voluntary sectors for help, and not the state. Whilst both the sides of Conservatism believe in a hierarchy, the traditional Conservatives believe in natural hierarchy, and people are either born into it, or they are not. These positions do not change, and that is how society is. The New Right, however, believe that the free market is the way to determine hierarchy, and people can change their positions through hard work. Therefore, it indicates that whilst the New Right do have their own values, traditional conservatism values are deeply rooted within their ideals.