What was Progressive in ‘Progressive Conservatism’?

Abstract

In January 2009 David Cameron announced that the ‘underlying philosophy’ of his government would be progressive conservatism. Despite the ambiguity about this term, it was generally interpreted as a signal that Cameron was moving his party to the left. To some commentators, Cameron was allying with the progressive ‘one nation’ strand of conservative thought. To others, particularly in the media, he was drawing on the more immediate influence of Phillip Blond's ‘Red Toryism’. However, the focus on the market (as opposed to state or community) found in both Cameron's speech and subsequent policies sits uneasily with both of these interpretations. Cameron's progressive conservatism has more in common with Thatcherism – an earlier conservative modernising project – than it does with centrist forms of conservative progressivism. Cameron's progressive conservatism is progressive, but only in particular, less commonly used, ways – not as a rediscovery of social justice.

Whatever happened to compassionate Conservatism under the Coalition government?

“…Following David Cameron's election as leader, a series of initiatives suggested that he was seeking to introduce new thinking to the Party, and to align it with interests and issues that it had not been linked with since at least the start of the Thatcher period (McAnulla, 2010;Page, 2010;Bochel, 2011;Griffiths, 2014;Kerr and Hayton, 2015). For example, in speeches Cameron appeared to make the case for a new approach, including to poverty (2006c) and anti-social behaviour (2006b), and highlighted a commitment to the NHS (2006a); he created six policy review groups, only one of which was directly concerned with economic matters, while one focused on social justice, chaired by Iain Duncan Smith; and in January 2009 he launched the idea of 'progressive Conservatism' at the Demos think tank, talking about using Conservative means to achieve 'progressive ends', such as a fairer, more equal and safer society (for example, Robinson and Twyman, 2014).…”

“…Cameron and his fellow modernisers arguably pursued a twin track approach, attempting to distance themselves from their predecessors and to challenge the perception of the Conservatives as the 'nasty party', while still appealing to traditional Conservative supporters (see, for example, McAnulla, 2010;Buckler and Dolowitz, 2012;Griffiths, 2014), so that while talking about tackling poverty, supporting the NHS and climate change, they were also promoting long-standing Conservative views on subjects such as crime, family structures and personal freedom, and taking responsibility away from the state and giving it to individuals , families and communities. Even before dropping the commitment to match Labour's public expenditure plans, they saw limited government and lower taxes as part of the solution.…”

“…Against wider arguments and positioning associated with Conservative modernisation (Garnett, 2010;Hayton, 2010;Bale, 2012;Griffiths, 2014;Kerr and Hayton, 2015), one area where that was particularly the case was in relation to social issues and policies (Bochel, 2011;Hayton and McEnhill, 2014;Page, 2014;Williams, 2015), so that on topics such as the NHS, inequality and social mobility, gender and family structure, Cameron and his allies argued that the Conservative Party recognised and would respond to the concerns of the public in a different manner. However, the nature and extent of any new approach have been questioned, along with the record of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government in taking a more 'compassionate' approach in its social policies (for example, Beech and Lee, 2015;Bochel and Powell, 2016).…”

‘Tory-normativity’ and gay rights advocacy in the British Conservative Party since the 1950s

“…With other gay rights legislation such as the Sexual Offences Act 1967; the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000; the Adoption and Children Act 2002; and the Civil Partnership Act 2004, we see a number of Conservative MPs speaking in favour of progressive legislation. It is of interest, therefore, to examine how a Conservative strain of thought has encompassed issues of gay rights, and how members of the party are able to advocate progressive positions from within an anti-progressive institutional framework – (the meaning of progressivism, like so many political words, is contested: here I take Griffith’s (2014: 29) understanding that progressivism is a set of policies that is guided by optimism, is accepting of rupture, and seeks social justice. )…”

Book review: Clear Blue Water? The Conservative Party and the Welfare State Since 1940

“…Eliding ‘progressive’ with ‘conservatism’ is, as Griffiths (2014: 29) has pointed out, oxymoronic, given that conservatism as a political philosophy is suspicious of change, particularly change driven by abstract reasoning built on notions such as progress. Nevertheless, ‘progressive conservatism’ is a moniker that David Cameron has chosen to use to describe his political philosophy on a number of occasions, both as the leader of the opposition and as prime minister.…”