{"id":32,"date":"2025-08-07T20:03:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/politicsuk\/?p=32"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T10:49:07","slug":"chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/politicsuk\/part-2-defining-the-political-world\/chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chapter 5<\/h1>\n\n\n

Political ideas: the major parties<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of the Second World War, some commentators felt that the two major political parties in Britain were \u2018converging\u2019 ideologically. Daniel Bell, an American sociologist, wrote of \u2018the end of ideology\u2019, and in the 1970s a post-war \u2018consensus\u2019 was discerned between the two parties on the desirability of a welfare state and a mixed economy. Britain\u2019s relative economic decline inclined both parties to adopt more radical remedies that drew on their ideological roots. Margaret Thatcher swung the Conservatives violently to the right, while Labour went radically to the left in the early 1980s. Once Thatcher had left the stage in 1990, John Major adopted a less overtly ideological stance, while Labour, following the failed experiment of Michael Foot as leader (1981\u20133), successively under Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Tony Blair moved rapidly into the centre. David Cameron revived the Conservative Party after his election in 2005, but came unstuck over EU membership on which, in 2013 he promised a referendum. Meanwhile, after 2015 Labour underwent a left-wing transformation under Jeremy Corbyn which did not include any electoral triumphs: he bowed out as leader after the disastrous 2019 election and in April 2020 Keir Starmer took over. This chapter analyses the evolution of the ideas of the major parties and brings up to date their most recent changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservatism is more than mere pragmatism in the ruling interest. It also includes a concern for unity, harmony and balance in a society based on property, equal opportunity, elite rule and gradual change. Margaret Thatcher gave major prominence to the neo-liberal strand in Conservatism, which stressed the primacy of markets in economics. Major returned to the rhetoric of \u2018one nation\u2019 Conservatism but contained the practice of Thatcherism. Labour began as a socialist party dedicated to the replacement of capitalism by a collectively owned economy but, in government, translated this into nationalisation, a policy of dubious success. In opposition during the 1980s it gradually shed its socialist clothes and donned those of the free market and restricted public spending: in effect a compromise with Thatcherism. Liberal Democrats inherited the \u2018new liberal ideas\u2019 of the early twentieth century to which they added an initial disposition to work with the Labour Party in office, something which faded after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Coalition Government 2010\u201315 succeeded in lasting its full parliamentary term, but Cameron\u2019s offer of a referendum to appease his right wing and deflect the electoral threat of UKIP proved a disaster when Leave won the vote and the country was plunged into the complexities of Brexit. Using unorthodox methods, Boris Johnson sealed a new deal with the EU, easily won a general election in December 2019 but his success in delivering Brexit was overshadowed by the national onset of coronavirus infection. To deal with this Johnson reversed several signature Conservative tenets of belief to lead a powerfully collective response. Meanwhile Labour concluded its five year love-hate affair with radical socialism in April 2020 by electing Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Learning Objectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To explain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  •  To explain the provenance of Conservatism and the ideology of capitalist free enterprise, to explain the difference between \u2018one nation\u2019 and neo-liberal Conservatism and to assess the impact of Margaret Thatcher on her party\u2019s ideas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To trace the origins of Labour thinking from the rejection of nineteenth-century capitalism, through corporate socialism to revisionism, Blairism; then the troubled period of Corbyn\u2019s leadership followed by Starmer\u2019s stewardship in 2020.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To sum up the message of the Liberal Party over the years, including its alliance with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and evolution into the Liberal Democrats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To assess the impact of UKIP and, in turn, Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic on political thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Quizzes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Test your knowledge with the Chapter 5 quizzes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Quiz<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n