The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics attempts to reveal the true nature of Conservative Party politics by examining the centrality of the myth of One Nation. The power and longevity of such a concept is crucial to any understanding of the success of the Conservative Party and this analysis of One Nation helps us to lay bare the kernel of Conservative party politics per se. The use of the term One Nation clearly matters for Conservative Party politics, not just in its 'ancestral' use emanating from Disraeli's 1840s novels and his late nineteenth century rhetoric, but also through Baldwin's speeches and to the failure of John Major to replicate such a serene and contented image of the Nation in the 1990s. But as a concept for the Conservatives it means so much more than mere imagery. It has been successfully utilized in their 'palaeontological' approach to their history in order to give the impression that only the Party puts 'Nation' before any sectional interest, that only the Conservative Party, as the national Party, has the ability to assuage and balance the plurality of competing interests on behalf of the Nation. It is because of this long and successful utilization of the term 'One Nation' that so many within the Party are so keen to lay claim to it.

Author Biography

David Seawright is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Leeds and a co-director of the Members of Parliament Project. His previous works include An Important Matter of Principle and (edited with David Baker) Britain for and Against Europe?