Conservative Party (UK)

Conservative Party
Leader	David Cameron
Founded	1830
Headquarters	25 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0DL
Ideology	Conservatism, Neoliberalism
Political position	Centre-right
European affiliation	European Democrat Union
European Parliament group	Currently Unaffiliated- trying to form a new coalition
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Colours	Blue
Website
www.conservatives.com

The Conservative Party is one of the two largest political parties in the United Kingdom and the most successful party in political history based on election victories. It is the oldest political party in the world, older even than the Democratic Party of the United States. The party's current leader is David Cameron, who as Leader of the Opposition heads the Shadow Cabinet.

The Conservative Party is descended from the Tory Party, one of the two ruling parties of 18th and 19th Century British Politics, and its members are still commonly referred to as Tories. Though the Conservatives were in government for a substantial part of the 19th and 20th Centuries, since losing the 1997 election to the Labour Party under Tony Blair, they have been in opposition in Parliament. The last Conservative Prime Minister was John Major.

The Conservatives are a member of the International Democrat Union and its European section. Within the European Parliament they are members of an informal bloc called the European Democrats (ED), which sits in a coalition arrangement with the EPP as the EPP-ED group. Cameron has announced his intention to end the partnership between the Eurosceptic Conservative ED and the more euro-integrationist Christian Democratic EPP, although the complexity of this move has been criticized by some in the party.

Name

The Party's official, though infrequently used, name is The Conservative and Unionist Party. This formal name is a hangover from the 1894 merger with the Liberal Unionist Party, and an echo of the party's defence (1886-1921) of what they then saw as the need to maintain the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. During this period the party and its allies were often referred to as the "Unionist Party". Following the establishment of the Irish Free State, "Conservative" came back into prominence in England and Wales, though "Unionist" remained, referring to the Party's support for British sovereignty in Northern Ireland in opposition to Irish nationalist and republican aspirations. In Scotland the Scottish Unionist Party, who were independent of the Conservative and Unionist Party until 1965, were the main face of the party. Similarly the Ulster Unionist Party supported the Conservatives for many decades in the House of Commons and took the Conservative whip. However, and in contrast to Scotland, this arrangement broke down in the aftermath of the imposition of direct rule in Northern Ireland in 1972. Even today there is a variation of views in the Conservative Party on the Northern Ireland "question". A number of affiliated Conservative organisations, such as the grouping of Conservative electoral agents, also style themselves Conservative and Unionist.

The internal organisation of the Conservative Party is a contrast between constituency parties who dominate in the selection of candidates and election of party leaders, and a central administration (Conservative Central Office) which leads in the financing and organisation of elections. The party in parliament and the leader of the party provide the core of daily political activity, and form policy in consultation with the central administration. As with Labour, party membership has long been declining and often falls below 100 in parliamentary seats where a Conservative candidate is unlikely ever to be elected. Nevertheless, following the dramatic decline in membership of the Labour party in the last 10 years, and a recent boost in Conservative party membership following the election of David Cameron as party leader, the Conservative party now has more members (around 290,000) than the Labour party and Liberal Democrats combined (around 200,000 and 70,000 respectively).

According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission it had income in the year ending 31 December, 2004 of about £20 million and expenditure of about £26 million (see [1]).

The electoral symbol of the Conservative party is a hand holding a torch. Its present motto, adopted by the Party on 6 December, 2005, is Change to Win – Win for Britain. This replaces the previous slogan, Today's Britain Tomorrow's Conservatives. The official party colours are red, white and blue, though blue is most generally associated with the party in contrast to the red of the Labour Party. The colour blue also influences the wardrobe choices of female Conservative politicians, such as former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Brief History

Main article: [[:History of the Conservative Party and Leaders of the Conservative Party]]

File:1st Earl of Beaconsfield.jpg

Benjamin Disraeli
Prime Minister 1868, 1874-80

The origins of the Conservative Party go back to the Tory faction of 1678-1681 which opposed the exclusion of the Duke of York, later King James VII&II, from the order of succession to the throne. The term 'Conservative' was first used by George Canning in the 1820s and was suggested as a title for the party by John Wilson Croker in the 1830s and later officially adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel, but the party is still often referred to as the 'Tory Party' (not least because newspaper editors find it a convenient shorthand when space is limited). The Tories more often than not formed the government from the accession of King George III (in 1760) until the Great Reform Act of 1832.

The widening of the franchise in the 19th century forced the party to popularise its approach, especially under Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli who carried through their own Reform Act in 1868. After 1886 the Conservatives allied with Liberal Unionists who opposed their own party's support for Irish Home Rule and held office under Lord Salisbury for all but three of the following twenty years. But when it split over tariff reform, the party suffered a landslide election defeat.

World War I saw an all-party coalition and the Conservatives then stayed in Coalition with half of the Liberals for four years after the armistice. Eventually, grassroots pressure forced the breakup of the Coalition and the party regained power on its own. It again dominated the political scene in the inter-war period, albeit from 1931 in a 'National Government' coalition. However in the 1945 general election the party lost power in a landslide to the Labour Party. The Conservatives accepted the reality of the Labour government's creation of the 'welfare state' and nationalisation programme but, in government, both Winston Churchill and later Harold Macmillan continued to promote liberal trade regulations and a lack of State involvement up until the economic boom of the 1950s.

The Heath government of 1970 - 1974 was, amongst other things, notable for taking Britain into the EEC. This was something which Harold Macmillan had tried but failed to achieve and a decision which would have a significant effect on the party over subsequent decades.

In 1975 Margaret Thatcher became leader of the party. And under her leadership, after her victory in the 1979 general election, the party pursued, albeit briefly, a monetarist economic programme. More generally the party adopted a rigorous free-market approach to government and focussed on the privatisation of public utilities. Here, from the Conservative viewpoint, the party experienced a high-point as Thatcher led the Conservatives to two landslide election victories in 1983 and 1987. However, she was also deeply unpopular in some sections of society, initially for the massive unemployment caused by the monetarist economic reforms, and later for what was seen as a heavy-handed response to issues such as the Miners' strike. However it was Thatcher's introduction of the Community Charge, known by its opponents as the poll tax, which was perhaps her downfall. Her increasing unpopularity - due to the aforementioned tax - and her unwillingness to change such policies which were perceived as vote-losing, allowed internal tensions over European policy to lead to her being deposed in 1990.

Margaret Thatcher was replaced by John Major, who won an unexpected election victory in 1992. Major's government suffered but a brief honeymoon period as Pound Sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism later that year. Additionally, around this time, approximately 1 million householders faced repossession of their homes because of increasing unemployment. The party subsequently lost much of its reputation for good financial stewardship and it was increasingly accused in the media of sleaze. Perhaps inevitably an effective opposition campaign by the Labour Party led to a landslide defeat in 1997, Labour's largest ever parliamentary victory.

In recent years William Hague, leader of the party from (1997 - 2001), portrayed himself at first as a 'moderniser' with a common touch. However by the time of the 2001 general election he had changed focus to concentrate on a more hard-right agenda; Europe, asylum seekers and tax cuts whilst declaring that only the Conservative Party could "Save the Pound". He was seen as a political lightweight by many, and was widely mocked for his claim that he drank 14 imperial pints (8 l) of beer in a day in his youth. Despite a low turnout, the election resulted in a net gain of just a single seat for the Conservative Party and William Hague's resignation as party leader.

Following Hague as leader Iain Duncan Smith (2001-2003) (often known as IDS) was a strong Eurosceptic. But Euroscepticism did not define Duncan Smith's leadership - indeed it was during his tenure that Europe ceased to be an issue of division in the party as it united behind calls for a referendum on the proposed European Union Constitution. Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet contained many new and unfamiliar faces but despite predictions by some that the party would lurch to the right the team instead followed a largely pragmatic and moderate approach to policy. However, before ever facing the public at a general election, after losing a vote of confidence, Duncan Smith was ultimately replaced as leader by Michael Howard, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, who was elected to the post, as the only candidate, on 6 November, 2003.

As leader Howard almost immediately announced radical changes to the way the Shadow Cabinet would work. He slashed the number of members by half, with Theresa May and Tim Yeo each shadowing two government departments. Minor departments still have shadows but have been removed from the cabinet and the post of Shadow Leader of the House of Commons was abolished. The role of party chairman was also split into two, with Lord Saatchi responsible for the party machine, and Liam Fox handling publicity. Michael Portillo was offered a position but refused, ostensibly due to his plans to step down from Parliament at the next election.

Under Howard, in the 2005 general election, the Conservative Party made a very slight recovery, increasing their share of the vote by around 0.6% (up to 32.3%). However, due to a large fall in the Labour vote and tactical unwind by Liberal Democrat voters (many of whom were no longer willing to back the Labour party in Labour vs. Conservative marginal seats), the Conservatives made a net gain of 33 seats. This helped slash the Labour majority from 167 seats down to 66 and made the Conservatives the largest party in England in terms of vote share. The day after the election, on May 6, Howard announced that he believed himself too old to lead the party into another election campaign, and he would therefore be stepping down to allow a new leader the time to prepare for the next election. Howard said that he believed that the party needed to amend the rules governing the election of the Party leader, and that he would allow time for that to happen before resigning.

Further information: Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005

David Cameron was victorious in the subsequent leadership campaign. Cameron beat his closest rival David Davis by a margin of more than two to one, taking 134,446 votes to 64,398, and has announced his intention to reform and realign the Conservative Party in a manner similar to that achieved by the Labour Party in opposition under Tony Blair. British opinion polls have since begun to indicate a small but perhaps significant swing in the Conservative's favour, often putting Cameron ahead of either PM Blair or Blair's most likely successor Gordon Brown at a future General Election.

The Conservative Party today

File:David Cameron .jpg

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party

The Conservative party, as the largest in the British Parliament after the Labour Party, provides the Official Opposition to the Labour Government of Tony Blair. Labour currently holds a 64-member majority in the House of Commons, with 353 Members of Parliament; the Conservatives provide 196 Members of Parliament and the Liberal Democrats follow with 63 Members.

Policies

Conservative Party policies are generally supportive of reduced government intervention in most matters of state, in particular in the economic sphere (e.g. through tax cuts and privatisations). But they do support increased government intervention in certain aspects the social or cultural sphere (e.g. through the defence of the traditional family and through restrictions on immigration).

Today, they are also noted for their broadly Eurosceptic stance. Many commentators believe that their failures in UK politics from 1997 were partly the result of continued internal tension between Europhiles (such as Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine) and Eurosceptics (such as John Redwood and William Hague). However, the Conservative party has in recent years largely come to terms with these issues, or has at least ceased to argue quite as publicly over what undoubtedly remains a contentious issue within the Party. Consecutive Conservative Party Leaders have pleaded for their MPs to unite behind them over the issue of Europe and it would appear that, for the time being at least, this plea is being heeded. Even the archetypal pro-European, Kenneth Clarke, has reluctantly accepted the party line on this contentious issue.

Following the election of David Cameron as leader, the party has increasingly focussed on environmental policies, a stance which has drawn fire from other parties and some sections of the media who perceive this change in focus to be merely cosmetic in nature, given the Party's traditional focus on economic growth above all else.

Conservatives are also opposed to devolution to the national and English regions of the UK, preferring a unitary centralised state. They opposed devolution to Wales and Scotland in 1999, whilst supporting it for Northern Ireland. They also did not support the unsuccessful attempt at devolution of power to North East England in 2004. However, since the New Labour government introduced devolution the Conservatives have pledged not to reverse the situation to its pre-1997 status.

Economic policy

During much of the twentieth century the Conservative Party was considered the "natural party of government", a position in part founded upon the party's reputation for pragmatism and economic competence. The contrast with Labour's perceived poor twentieth-century record remained strong, even as the Conservative governments of the 1980s presided over mass unemployment on a scale which had not been seen since the 1930s. (Peaking nationally at 11% in 1986). The party's economic reputation was, however, dealt a blow by the 1992 Black Wednesday debacle, in which billions of pounds were spent trying to keep the pound within the European ERM system of exchange rates at an overvalued rate. This, combined with the deep recession of the early 1990s, allowed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to claim, from the Conservatives, the mantle of economic competence. Many on both the left and right have since argued that New Labour's embrace of market forces and public sector modernisation amounted to little more than stealing the Conservative Party's economic clothes.

Though the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s, which sought to lower rising inflation by radical measures and which led in part to higher unemployment, reversed a situation in Britain of relative economic decline, the Conservatives have yet to regain their reputation for economic competence. As a result of the dominance of the Labour Party in debates over economic policy, recent Conservative election campaigns have focused much more on low-salience social or cultural issues such as crime, immigration and asylum. The party has now pledged to match Labour spending plans - a reverse of the situation in 1997.

Following the 1997 general election, the Conservative Party opposed Labour's flagship policy for economic stability: the decision to commit the Bank of England to a goal of low and stable inflation, and to grant it independent control of interest rates to meet this target. Economists had long advocated independent central banks as a means of depoliticising monetary policy and overcoming the problem of time inconsistency (a situation in game theory which shows how a policymaker who cares about both low unemployment and low inflation will achieve neither). Moreover, the 1990s saw a number of countries (e.g. New Zealand) pursue such reforms to great effect. However, the Conservatives opposed Bank of England independence, which they felt was a prelude to British membership of the European single currency. They also expressed concern over the removal of monetary policy from democratic control. In the end though, the popularity of this policy amongst economists and the financial community, along with its success at keeping down inflation, has led the Conservatives to renege on their initial opposition and embrace Labour's reform.

The Conservative Party remains committed in principle to a programme of cuts in direct taxation, part of the intellectual legacy of the Thatcher years. Newly elected leader David Cameron has said that the country needed a "dynamic and competitive economy" but, in a significant move for the party, he has also argued that the proceeds of any growth should be shared between both "tax reduction and extra public investment".

Aside from tax cuts, the most notable Conservative economic policy of recent years has probably been opposition to the European single currency. Anticipating the growing euroscepticism within his party, John Major negotiated a British opt-out from the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, although several members of Major's cabinet (Kenneth Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Stephen Dorrell) were personally supportive of EMU participation. Following Major's resignation after the 1997 defeat, the Conservatives have had a succession of leaders (William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard and David Cameron) from the eurosceptic wing of British politics, and these men have positioned the party firmly against future EMU integration. This policy appears to be broadly in-line with the mood of the British electorate although voters typically rank Europe as a low importance issue next to education or healthcare, partly explaining why the Conservatives have been unable to convert their most popular policy into actual votes.

Social policy

Scarborough Conservative Club.

The Conservative Party has historically been associated with social conservatism, views which have often been reflected in both the party's social and socio-economic policies, such as section 28, benefit cuts for single mothers and the removal of the link between pensions and earnings. Many Conservative modernisers have claimed that the traditional and authoritarian nature of past Conservative social policies played a major role in the decline of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. For example, David Willetts has criticised what he termed "the war on single parents", whilst former Conservative Party Chairman Brian Mawhinney observed that the party had "created the impression that if you weren't in a traditional nuclear family, then we weren't interested in you".

Since 1997, a debate has therefore raged within the party between modernisers such as Michael Portillo, who believe that the Conservatives should change their social views in line with 21st century Britain, and traditionalists such as William Hague and David Davis, who argue that the party should stick to its traditional conservative social agenda. The Conservative Party grassroots have pushed in the latter direction, helping the right wing of the party win many of these political battles. This famously resulted in William Hague's and Michael Howard's pre-election swings to the right (in 2001 and 2005, respectively), and the election of the stop-Ken Clarke candidate Iain Duncan Smith in 2001. Theresa May famously remarked that the result of all this was that the Conservatives were perceived as "the nasty party".

In recent years, and in particular since the election of Cameron as leader of the party, the modernisers have been given more of a voice on social policy. For example, the 2005 election saw the first black Conservative MP, Adam Afriyie, elected in Windsor. This contrasts positively with the situation in Cheltenham thirteen years earlier, when the black Conservative candidate John Taylor was defeated defending a marginal Conservative seat, allegedly due to the unwillingness of local Conservative voters to support a non-white candidate. Conservative modernisers point to Afriyie's election as evidence that the party is changing, though opponents argue that the election of a single black MP doesn't count for much against the perceived right-wing anti-immigrant campaign fought by the Conservatives in 2005.

The changes in official Conservative Party attitude have not been universally welcomed. The prominent conservative journalist Peter Hitchens has described them as "useless", for what he sees as their persistent acquiescence to pervailing liberal orthodoxy.

Foreign Policy

For much of the 20th century the Conservative party has taken a broadly Atlanticist stance in relations with the United States favouring close ties with the United States and a range of other similarly-aligned nations such as Canada, Australia and Japan. The Conservatives have generally favoured a diverse range of international alliances, ranging from NATO to the Commonwealth.

Close US-British relations have been an element of Conservative foreign policy for over half a century. Winston Churchill, in his post-war ministry (1951-1955), built up a strong relationship with the Eisenhower Administration in the US. Harold Macmillan demonstrated a similarly close relationship with the following Democratic administration of J.F. Kennedy. Though the US-British relationship in foreign affairs has often been termed a 'Special Relationship', a term coined by Winston Churchill, this has often been observed most clearly where leaders in each country are of a similar political stripe. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher built a close relationship with American President Ronald Reagan in his opposition to the former Soviet Union, but John Major was largely unsuccessful in his personal contacts with former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Out of power and perceived as largely irrelevant, recent Conservative leaders have struggled to forge personal relationships with US Presidents. The strong bilateral relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair would likely remain should Cameron or another Conservative leader take power alongside a Republican US President, or alongside a Democratic President with a similar view on international affairs.

As a direct result of the party's strong commitment to an Atlanticist and free-market foreign policy, no subject has more divided the Conservative Party in recent history than the UK's relations with the European Union. Though the principal architect of Britain’s entry into the then-Common Market (later European Community and European Union) was Conservative PM Edward Heath, and both Winston Churchill and Harold MacMillan were in favour of some form of European union, the bulk of contemporary Conservative opinion is opposed to closer economic and particularly political relations with Europe. Divisions on Europe came to the fore under the premiership of John Major(1990-1997) when the slow process of integration within the EU forced tensions to the surface; a hard core of Eurosceptic Members of Parliament took advantage of the small Conservative majority in Parliament to oppose Government policy on the Maastricht Treaty and, by so doing, undermined the Government's credibility.

In recent years the Conservative Party has become more clearly Eurosceptic as the Labour Government has found itself unable to make a positive case for further integration and as Eurosceptic or pro-withdrawal parties such as the UK Independence Party have made strong showings in UK elections to the European Parliament. Though providing little clear benefit in recent parliamentary elections, the Conservative Party has adopted a policy on Europe (supported by the new Conservative leader David Cameron and his equally Eurosceptic Foreign Affairs spokesman William Hague) which would include the renegotiation of key EU treaties and the return of a number of powers back to the UK; opinion polls generally identify Conservative policy on Europe as closer to public opinion than that of either the Labour or Liberal Democrat parties. The degree to which a Conservative Government could implement policy on Europe would depend directly on the willingness of other EU member states to agree to such policies. Much could rest on the potential threat or risk of British withdrawal from the EU should other states prove unwilling.

Beyond relations with the United States, Commonwealth and the EU, the Conservative Party has generally supported a pro-free trade foreign policy within the mainstream of international affairs. The degree to which Conservative Governments have supported interventionist or non-interventionist Presidents in the US has often varied with the personal relations between US President and British Prime Minister.

Local elections 2006 - a Conservative revival?

On 4 May, 2006 the voters went out to cast their votes in the 2006 local elections. Out of the control of the councils, Labour Party lost 18, the Liberal Democrats gained 1 and the Conservatives won control of 11 including the council of Ealing which is often seen as a "bellwether" for the General Election - since the second World War the party which gained control of Ealing Council has gone on to win the next General Election on every occasion bar one. At the end of the count, the Conservatives gained 316 new Councillors, the Liberal Democrats gained only 2 and Labour lost a total of 319.

The elections were overshadowed by various troubles within the Labour party; an on-going police investigation into alleged "cash for peerages" ([2]), Deputy Prime minister John Prescott's affair ([3]), and Charles Clarke's release of over 1000 foreign criminals without considering them for deportation (see [4]). This helped the Tories, who are now hoping for further victories before the next UK general election, scheduled for 2009 or 2010.

Furthermore a Populus voting intention Poll for The Times following the local elections on 9th May 2006 suggests that any revival may be continuing, showing the Tories on 38%, a full 8 points above Labour on 30% of the projected vote. For the first time David Cameron was also viewed by more voters as a potential Prime Minister when compared with Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Internal Factions

There are three main political factions within the modern Conservative Party:

Although One Nation Conservatives were the dominant faction for most of the post-war era, providing Conservative Prime Ministers such as Harold MacMillan (1957 - 1963) and Edward Heath (1970 - 1974), the name itself comes from a famous phrase of Benjamin Disraeli. The basis of One Nation Conservatism is a belief in social cohesion, and it's adherents support social institutions that maintain harmony between people of different classes (and more recently, people of different races or religions). These institutions have typically included the welfare state, the BBC, and local government. One Nation Conservatives are usually seen as being socially liberal, since tolerance is viewed as an important factor in social cohesion. Many are also supporters of the European Union, perhaps stemming from an extension of the cohesion principle to the international level, though some are strongly hostile to the EU (such as Sir Peter Tapsell). Prominent One Nation Conservatives in the contemporary party include Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Damian Green, and the faction is associated with the internal pressure group, the Tory Reform Group.

An allied but minority group of Conservatives could be said to belong to a Libertarian or social-liberal wing. This faction, which includes Alan Duncan and Peter Lilley, calls for the combining of social freedom with economic freedoms. In Alan Duncan's book Saturns Children (1995) the MP called for all drugs to be legalised.

The second main faction in the Conservative party is the Thatcherite wing. This wing of the party achieved dominance after the election of Margaret Thatcher as party leader in 1975. The Thatcherite political agenda is mainly concerned with reducing the role of the government in the economy, and to this end they support tax cuts, privatisation of public services and a reduction in the size of the welfare state. On social policy matters are not so clear cut as although Thatcher herself was socially conservative, her supporters harbour a range of social opinions from the liberal views of Michael Portillo to the traditional conservatism of William Hague and David Davis. Many, but not all, Thatcherites are Eurosceptic, since they view many European regulations as unwelcome interference in the market. Thatcherite europhiles include Leon Brittan and Quentin Davies. Many take inspiration from Thatcher's famous anti-EU Bruges speech in 1988, in which she declared that "we have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level". Thatcherites also tend to be atlanticist, dating back to the close friendship between Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan.

The so-called Faith, Flag and Family wing are the third main element within the Conservative Party. This faction's name is drawn from its support for three British social institutions: the established Church, the unitary British state and the traditional family. To this end, they emphasise Britain's Protestant heritage, they oppose any transfer of power away from the state (either downwards to the nations and regions or upwards to the European Union), and they are highly critical of homosexuals, single parents and other non-traditional family groupings. They are strongly opposed to immigration into the UK, and some have in the past professed racist opinions. They also are known for their support for capital punishment. Prominent MPs from this wing of the party include Andrew Rosindell and Edward Leigh - himself a prominent Roman Catholic, notable in a faction marked out by its support for the established Church of England, as mentioned above. It should be noted however that although this faction has never been particularly strong within the parliamentary party, its strength within the rank-and-file party membership means that it has wielded considerable power over Conservative social policy. Gay Conservative MP Alan Duncan famously once referred to this wing as a "Taleban tendency" within the party. Historically, many Conservatives from this faction were members of the Monday Club, and more recently they have participated in the Cornerstone Group. Roger Scruton, a conservative philosopher, is a good example of this group; his writing rarely touches on the economy, but comments on providing a conservative perspective on social issues.

Note that not all Conservative MPs can be easily placed within one of the above groupings. For example, John Major was the ostensibly "Thatcherite" candidate during the 1990 leadership election, but he consistently promoted One Nation Conservatives to the higher reaches of his cabinet during his time as Prime Minister. These included Kenneth Clarke (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Michael Heseltine (Deputy Prime Minister). There is also a significant group which combines many different elements of the above; the so-called 'modernisers' currently led by David Cameron. Their conservatism combines traditional conservatism with green politics, social-liberalism, a belief in social justice, an internationalist concern for global poverty and euroscepticism.

Associated groups

Further information: List of organisations associated with the British Conservative Party

• Bow Group
• Bruges Group
• Cchange
• Centre for Policy Studies
• Conservative Research Department
• Conservative Way Forward
• Cornerstone Group
• European Foundation
• The Freedom Association
• Tory Reform Group
• Selsdon Group

See also

• List of Conservative Party politicians
• Leaders of the Conservative Party
• Chairman of the Conservative Party
• Conservative Central Office
• Conservative Research Department
• British politics
• Thatcherism
• Euroscepticism
• UK topics
• Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK) (current Conservative front bench)
• Scottish Unionist Party (1912-1965)

Further reading

• Geoffrey Wheatcroft (2005), The Strange Death of Tory England

External links

Official Party sites

• The Conservative Party
• The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party
• Welsh Conservatives
• Conservatives in Northern Ireland
• Conservative Future - party youth wing

Internal party policy groups

• The Bow Group
• Conservative Way Forward
• The Tory Reform Group

Other

• An archive of Conservative electoral manifestos from 1900-present and a directory of Conservative Party websites, including constituency associations
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Special Report: Conservative Party
• LookSmart - Conservative Party directory category
• The Spectator Often called the Conservative Party "house journal", although not officially affiliated to the party
• Open Directory Project - Conservative Party directory category
• Yahoo! - Conservative Party directory category
• David Stewart - British Conservative An interesting look at the Conservative party, a good place to get both lighthearted and serious political talk.