The Strange Death of Tory England by Geoffrey Wheatcroft
(Allen Lane, £20)
The Strange Death of Liberal England was the title of George Dangerfield’s book on the collapse of the Liberal party after the first world war. Now, after three heavy defeats in a row, it is no surprise that Geoffrey Wheatcroft has nabbed the title for his book on the state of the Tories. On the surface, a lot of it reads like the political gossip of the day preserved between hard covers. But beneath it there is a sustained argument that gets to the heart of the crisis facing Conservatism.
The book’s central thesis is that Thatcherism, using free market economics to wage war on Britain’s established institutions, has made Conservatism of the sort we have known for 150 years unsustainable. Now Conservatives have to settle for a thin language of freedom without obligation, and to talk to voters only as consumers, not citizens. Wheatcroft manifestly prefers traditional Tory squires to left-wing academics, but ironically his book is a most accessible and readable version of a thesis that has been put forward by a variety of thinkers from the left, such as Anthony Giddens, John Gray and David Selbourne. They too are transfixed by the phenomenon of Thatcherism and see it as having destroyed the very institutions needed to sustain the Conservative party and a Conservative way of thinking. They argue that, like some strange insect from one of David Attenborough’s nature films, the Conservative party destroyed itself in the very act of creating today’s Britain.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Print
