Unfit To Govern

The origins of the Conservative Party can be traced to the ‘Tory’ faction which emerged in the later seventeenth century. This ‘Tory Party’ established a secure hold on government between 1783 and 1830, first under the Younger Pitt and then Lord Liverpool. Support for the Tory party collapsed in the early 19th century and opened the way for a return of the Whigs in the 1830s.

The modern history of the Conservative Party begins with the era of Disraeli. Disraeli’s government of 1874-1880 was a landmark in Conservative fortunes, and its domestic measures widened its appeal to the urban lower and middle classes. However, economic problems and Gladstone’s revival of Liberal spirits led to Conservative defeat in 1880.

The First World War transformed the position of the Conservative Party. As the ‘patriotic’ party, its advocacy of vigorous prosecution of the war led to increased popularity, and it also benefited from the splits and eventual decline of the Liberal Party. In May 1915 the Conservatives agreed to join a coalition under the Liberal Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith. When victory came in 1918 Lloyd George was at the height of his popularity, and Bonar Law readily agreed that the Coalition should continue in order to tackle the problems of peace-making and reconstruction.

The Coalition became increasingly unpopular amongst Conservative MPs and local activists. In March 1921 Bonar Law resigned for reasons of health, and Austen Chamberlain became the Conservative leader. His approach was too autocratic and inflexible, and he seemed too closely tied to the discredited Lloyd George. A revolt against the Coalition swelled up from the lower ranks of the party, and Chamberlain was defeated at the meeting of Conservative MPs held at the Carlton Club on 19 October 1922. Bonar Law led the victorious rebels, and thus ousted both Chamberlain as Party Leader and Lloyd George as Prime Minister.

The Conservatives to regained power in 1951 and then to remained in office continuously until 1964. To general surprise, Edward Heath won the 1970 election and became Prime Minister. Heath was forced to hold a ballot for the Party leadership in February 1975 in which he was defeated by Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher led the Conservatives to three successive victories in 1979, 1983 and 1987. She was the dominant political personality throughout the 1980s, especially after securing victory in the Falklands war of 1982. The deeply unpopular ‘poll tax’, and internal disputes over European policy led to Mrs Thatcher’s defeat in a leadership ballot in November 1990.

The Major government of 1992-1997 was a painful period for the Conservative Party, and opinion poll ratings slumped to record lows following the economic fiasco of ‘Black Wednesday’ in 1992. The most serious problems were caused by a recession which hit Conservative support in southern England, a collapse of normal party unity over the increasingly contentious issue of Europe, and ‘sleaze’ – a string of personal scandals involving Conservative ministers and MPs. John Major won the party leadership contest on 27 November 1990.

An effective opposition campaign by the Labour Party culminated in a landslide defeat for the Conservatives in 1997 that was Labour’s largest ever parliamentary victory. The 1997 election left the Conservative Party with MPs in just England, all remaining seats in Scotland and Wales having been lost and not a single seat having been gained anywhere.

Michael Howard stood for the Conservative leadership unopposed on 6 November 2003. After defeat in the general election in 2005, he stepped down after allowing time for the party to amend its leadership election rules.

David Cameron won the subsequent leadership campaign. Cameron beat his closest rival, David Davis , by a margin of more than two to one, taking 134,446 votes to 64,398. He then announced his intention to reform and realign the Conservatives, saying they needed to change the way they looked, felt, thought and behaved, advocating a more centre-right stance as opposed to their recent staunchly right-wing platform.

As is often said the rest is history.

The full article from which this was taken can be found at Lancaster Conservatives Future. Also wikipedia.

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