Politics - Political parties

What is one nation conservatism?

It is based on a principle of “noblesse oblige” which is when the rich have a moral and political duty to look after the poor, otherwise it is two different nations

What is neo - liberal conservatism?

All individuals should look after themselves as individuals. This is almost a small “laissez faire” state who believe in tax cuts and a free market economy.

Why do neo - liberal conservatives want to cut taxes?

Before, the rich had to pay 90% of taxes, so they wanted to decrease these to encourage entrepreneurship in the 1980s and 1990s.

What was a neo - liberal policy introduced to encourage individual self - reliance?

The introduction of Universal Credit (2012)

Example of a free market economy introduced by a neo - liberal

Privatisation of companies in the 1980s under Thatcher

What is neo - conservative conservatism?

Return to traditional (Christian) family values and hierarchy and authority. These people are frustrated that societal values have changed such as having more single parent families - they have to pick up the pieces

What are some of the neo - conservatives values?

Brexit - restore sovereignty to the Uk

Traditional social conservatism - anti woke

“Culture wars” against the “woke agenda”

Boris Johnson’s neo - conservative views and policies

VIEW: Dislike of international cooperation and supranational bodies (above national Gov) due to a concern with British sovereignty which gives “liberal” judges too much power in immigration. POLICY: Leave the single European market (December 2020)

VIEW: Mistrust of the ECHR and its interpretation from “liberal” judges

POLICY: Reform of the HRA (1998) - replace this with a British Bill of Rights with fewer rights for criminals and terrorist suspects

VIEW: Dislike of “foreigners”

POLICY: Australian - style points based immigration system which someone had to score a certain number of points to apply for a visa

Boris Johnson’s neo - liberal views and policies

VIEW: Dislike of gov intervention and the “nanny state”

POLICY: Tax cuts (in the future)

VIEW: Champion the benefits of “free trade”

POLICY: Free trade deal promised with the USA - Trump’s previous presidency

Boris Johnson’s one nation views and policies

VIEW: Belief that Labour voters that lent Johnson a vote should be rewarded

POLICY: Levelling up policy - Government intervention to improve infrastructure and the economy in the North to mend the North South divide

VIEW: Furlough scheme tax increases

POLICY: cost £42 billion a month

How much did Boris Johnson’s Furlough tax scheme cost?

£42 billion a month

Conclusion on Boris Johnson’s views

New right neo - conservative: as his biggest achievement was Brexit. He didn’t get lots of the one - nation policies done.

Rishi Sunak’s Neo conservative views and policies

VIEW:Mistrust of the ECHR

POLICY: Re - appointed Dominic Raab as Deputy PM whos big project has been to replace the HRA with a British Bill of RIghts

VIEW: Dislike of immigration

POLICY: Appointment of Suella Braverman who vowed to end cross - channel boats of refugees/immigrants. He wanted to make the Rwanda Deportation policy work and “stop the boats” - this didn’t work

Slogan to stop immigration

Stop the boats

Rishi Sunak’s neo - liberal views and policies

VIEW: Dislike of Government intervention

POLICY: National Insurance cut in Nov 2023 and April 2024, causing causing £23bn budget cuts/tax rises in the future.

Rishi Sunak’s pragmatic views and policies

VIEW: Tax increases

POLICY: Scrapped Truss’s proposed cut in income tax. Kept the threshold the same for tax bands, meaning that more people will be pay higher taxes until 2028. Highest taxes since WW2

VIEW: Improve housing

POLICY: Compromising on housing targets for local councils, after giving into tory rebels. Made them “advisory” instead of “mandatory” which would enable NIMBY (not in my backyard) campaigners to block virtually all new house buildings)

VIEW: Kept Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor (one nation)

Conclusion on Rishi Sunak

He was a pragmatist . However, under the circumstances he was in, specifically the £30bn black hole created by Truss, he had to be neo - conservative and his social view reflected this. Sunak was quite socially conservative, for example, vetoing Nicola Sturgeon’s gender recognition act.

Who is Kemi Badenoch and what are her views?

Leader of the opposition. She is anti - woke so doesn’t want the extension of trans rights and opposes multi culturalism. She is a “net zero” sceptic and has a new right neo - liberal suspicion of Labour’s high taxes and state control. She supports a national enquiry on “grooming gangs”.

What faction do moderates and one - nation conservatives go into?

Tory Reform Group which is affiliated with Bright Blue think tank.

What does it mean when someone says that the Conservatives are down to a rump of MPs in its heartlands?

They have suffered heavily in the general election and are only holding on to the constituencies that have been historically supportive

What does Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet tell us

Majority are new right or even populist

What % of Conservative MPs that have “survived” are in the Tory Reform Group?

40%

Why did the Conservative Party lose the 2024 election so badly? (Leaders)

Johnson was a “partygate” liar and Truss tanked the UK economy in September 2022. Too many leaders which destabilised the party.

How much did the value of the pound drop when Liz Truss was PM

Dropped to £1.02 compared to the dollar instead of £1.25

Why did the Conservative party lose the 2024 election so badly? (economic performance)

The UK economy has “flatlined” from 2008, there hasn’t been much economic growth. There has been high inflation of around 25% in the two years 2022 and 2023. All Governments in the western democratic world who were in power during the inflation, have been defeated in the next election

How much did inflation increase in the two years of 2022 and 2023

25%

Why did the Conservatives lose the 2024 election? (failure to deliver over immigration)

It has generally increased over the past 5 years with at lest 2 million more people a year since 2022. Most of this is legal migration and only about 50,000 per year is illegal. This makes the Conservatives look weak as they haven’t delivered on one of their main policies. It looks like one of the main aims of Brexit has been a complete failure, which creates disillusioned voters and fuels the growth of the populist like Nigel Farage with Reform UK

Why did the Conservative party lose the election? (Reform UK)

Got 14% of the vote in 2024 which was mostly from ex - Conservative 2019 voters. This made the Conservative vote split which allowed Labour to benefit off this, especially with FPTP.