Core value - pragmatism

Society, economy, state

Pragmatism

• Flexible approach to dealing with issues making decisions on the basis of what works

• Change to conserve

Format and role of politics

• Politics should be a conversation, not an argument

  • Compromise vs anger and conflict

• Political action should never be the result of conflict over political theories

  • Should be a relationship between govt and governed

Post-war pragmatism

• Modern Con govt kept radical Labour reforms (NHS, nationalisation, welfare state) due to their popularity

  • No point in getting rid of them if they worked and made the electorate happy

Quotes: Burke

“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its own conservation”

Quotes: Oakeshott (don’t rock the boat!)

[The job of the govt is to] “keep the ship afloat at all costs… using experience to negotiate a storm, stoicism to accept necessary changes of direction… and not fixating on a part that may not exist”

Conservatives prefer “the familiar to the unknown, the actual to the possible, the convenient to the perfect… present laughter to utopian bliss”

“politics should be a conversation, not an argument”