According to Truss, her values for modern British conservatism included an emphasis on "restoration of personal responsibility and initiative".

She wrote that the amassing of heavy amounts of debt following Gordon Brown's granting of rescue packages to banks in 2008 and 2009, in the wake of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, had – together with other policies – put the United Kingdom in need of a modern British conservatism.

In it he advocated for a foreign policy that would shed the United Kingdom's "utopian idealism in favour of a more rugged internationalism".

He argued for a deal that would target reducing carbon dioxide emissions within the top 20 carbon-emitting countries, for Britain to refocus its priorities in foreign conflicts to reflect its "interests and capabilities", for the strengthening of relations with the Commonwealth, for the United Kingdom to pursue a more relaxed relationship with the United States, and for it to seek a two-speed European Union.

[5] John Redwood, a Conservative MP for Wokingham in Berkshire, praised the book and the ideals expressed therein in his personal blog John Redwood's Diary; he wrote that the authors had truly been advocates for modern British conservatism, "no Lib Dems in drag or Coalition mongers who fancy another five years of political marriage to another party.