Non-Conservative
Although a government is in office that is formed from the Conservative Party, some commentators have complained that it is by no means a Conservative government. They point to ‘typical’ Conservative policies featuring low taxes, smaller government, and a greater area of both responsibility and opportunity for individuals and families, and they point out that this is not what the current government is doing.
Instead, they say, it is implementing policies that oppose, rather than support the classically Conservative agenda. They suggest it is in the thrall of lobby groups whose agendas run counter to the best interests of the Party and country as a whole. In support of the green lobby, the government’s Net Zero platform involves increased taxes, larger, more intrusive, government, and diminished chances for people to make their own decisions. It is also making their lives more expensive. A corollary to this is that the opportunities open to people are also reduced.
Critics single out the public health lobby as another group with an agenda that opposes those ‘typical’ Conservative policies, and suggest that the civil service of the Department of Health is determined to implement that agenda. They allege that ordinary people find themselves under daily attack by a government that is bent on implementing controls on what they eat and drink, how much they eat and drink, and whether or not they choose to consume tobacco or nicotine products. This agenda is being advanced by imposts and prohibitions, all in the name of the general health of the populace, but achievable in practice only by controlling in minute detail the everyday lifestyles of that populace. This is not what Conservative governments are supposed to do.
The government is certainly not conservative with a small “c,” preferring to keep things as they are, and move forward cautiously and perhaps reluctantly. This describes a character trait shared by few who enter the political arena. But, more tellingly, the government is not Conservative with a capital “C,” representing the political tradition that wants change to be natural, organic and spontaneous, instead of being imposed to fulfil a preconceived plan. Conservatives of the political tradition want change that results from the cumulative decisions of those who make up society, and they point to the current government as one that imposes change in order to move society in a direction that Westminster’s planners want, rather than one that ordinary people want.
Margaret Thatcher was firmly in the political tradition of Conservatism, in that she restored much of the spontaneity of society that had been lost to decades of central planning and socialist policies of state control. She also supported lower taxes, a less intrusive government, and an expansion of opportunity. The present government, however, does none of those things. The one exception to this has been that they achieved Brexit against a hostile establishment determined to override the choice made by the people of the UK. Had the success of Brexit been used to promote those ‘typical’ Conservative policies once free to do so, the critics might have applauded them. But to replace a foreign master by a domestic one does not diminish the burden or the degree of control.
The question of whether this government is a good one or a bad one will be determined by the electorate in due course, although the answer is looking more obvious each day. The question of whether this government is a Conservative one is already obvious, however. It is not.