Are 'progressive Conservative' yoof planning to make Polly Toynbee the next...
Yet another modernising pressure group has sprung up to distort any vestigial remnants of the Tory idea – they seem to be spawning now at the rate of one a week. Singling one out for special notice may...
View ArticleDavid Cameron finds inspiration in Gladstone
Most discussion of Victorian politics is treated as a straight choice between Gladstone and Disraeli. (Personally, I'm a Palmerston fan, but that's a subject for another day.) And normally,...
View ArticleA Peelite Coalition? More lessons from history for the Conservatives
The coalition has brought out a great many references to Victorian politics in recent days, some of them a bit misguided. My favourite is the widespread invocation of Disraeli’s remark that “England...
View ArticleOur freedoms are rooted in the common law
'To the liberalism they profess, I prefer the liberties we enjoy; to the Rights of Man, the rights of Englishmen.' Benjamin Disraeli
View ArticleIf Gandhi and Churchill can share Parliament Square, who will join them next?
When I heard George Osborne this morning explaining gravely that a statue of Gandhi would be erected in Parliament Square because “As the father of the largest democracy in the world, it’s time for...
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