About The Grumbling Times
Conservatism is in crisis.
In the United Kingdom, as across most of the Western world, it faces being usurped and decimated by a combination of destructive ideological forces. Yet, at the same time, it remains severely misunderstood, wilfully misrepresented by its opponents and lacking in application by governments which claim to support its ideas.
Since the general election of July 2024, the Conservative Party to many appears to be in terminal decline. The British conservative tradition, in which the party leadership of recent decades seemingly gave up its belief, may needlessly become a victim of this result. For nothing more than cynical political gain, it has been tied to the failures of the previous government through its nominal association, when it was often its absence that helped to produce unwise or ineffective policies.
The choices made by the centre-right during this term of opposition will determine whether it is destroyed, perhaps permanently, or can reconstitute itself with a reinvigorated self-belief. The foundation of any recovery of conservatism’s fortunes, alongside those of the party to which its fate is linked, must be a historically informed understanding of what conservatism is and is not, as well as a rediscovery of its potential effectiveness as an approach to government.
It is only through understanding what conservatism stood for politically, before the party lost its way, that principles can be found and adapted to present or future circumstances. Confronted by politics of indifference, repudiation and vengeful destruction, conservatism must be the positive and constructive alternative which can truly address the challenges facing people today.
This Substack, therefore, is my modest attempt to preserve what I can of the conservative tradition, whilst trying to find a path forward that is necessarily decent, intelligent, moderated, prudent and flexible. I sincerely hope readers will consider my various thoughts on the history and future of conservatism useful in those pursuits.
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