One-nation conservatism

It advocates the "preservation of established institutions and traditional principles within a political democracy, in combination with social and economic programmes designed to benefit the ordinary person".

One-nation thinking influenced their tolerance of the Labour government's Keynesian intervention in the economy, formation of a welfare state and the National Health Service.

Thanks to Iain Macleod, Edward Heath and Enoch Powell, special attention after 1950 was paid to one-nation conservatism that promised support for the poorer and working class elements in the Party coalition.

[13][14] One-nation conservatism was conceived by the Conservative British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli,[15] who outlines his political philosophy in two of his novels: Coningsby (1844), and Sybil (1845).

[16] One-nation conservatism was his solution to this division, namely a system of measures to improve the lives of the people, provide social support and protect the working classes.

[18] Disraeli justified his views pragmatically by arguing that should the ruling class become indifferent to the suffering of the people, society would become unstable and social revolution would become a possibility.

[16] Tory politicians such as Richard Oastler, Michael Thomas Sadler and Lord Shaftesbury combined their elitist responsibility and a strong humanitarian element with their involvement in the Factory Acts.

[24] Conservative prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin pursued an interventionist, one-nation approach which won support because of its wide electoral appeal.

Figures such as Margaret Thatcher believed that to reverse the national decline it was necessary to revive old values of individualism and challenge the dependency culture which they felt had been created by the welfare state.

[28] One-nation conservatives such as Edward Heath continued to criticise Thatcher's premiership during the early 1980s recession, but they lost influence after the party won the 1983 general election.

[29] The Conservative Party's 2010 general election manifesto contained a section on "One World Conservatism", including a commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on well-targeted aid.

[30] In 2006, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Tyrie published a pamphlet which claimed that party leader David Cameron was following the one-nationist path of Disraeli.