Dr James Allan: Australia’s Conservatives Are Paying the Price of Kowtowing to the Left

When the so-called ‘moderate’ MPs in a Westminster conservative political party remove a sitting Prime Minister from their own party, one who has delivered a majority government but is to the right of these moderates, the long-term effects are not good. Back in 1990, and after delivering 11 years of majority governments, Maggie Thatcher was knifed by the wets or moderates in the British Tory party. It is arguable that the party has never recovered.

Dr James Allan: Mandates matter

I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again: why do right-of-centre politicians want to go into politics? If the answer is nothing more than ‘to win elections’, then notice what follows from that value-free vacuum. You can get an Angela Merkel, who won election after election, all while opening up the country’s borders to young, single men from Afghanistan and the Middle East, who overall lacked any obvious sympathy or liking for the whole array of Western values. How has that worked out for Germany?

Clive Bibby: Western Conservative Values versus Wokeism

Western conservative values are on a comeback and Wokeism is being destroyed in the process.

I have always considered myself to be a progressive conservative.

Before my “Woke” opponents, while lying in wait for something they can criticise and choke on their muesli, let me explain what l mean by that apparent contradictory term.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: What does it mean to be a ‘conservative’?

After the Soviet Union had imploded back in the early ‘90s, BBC reporters started referring to the communists as ‘conservatives’. This usage initially took me by surprise (as I am sure it did many people). Blimey, ‘conservative’ is the polar opposite of ‘communist’, isn’t it?

Let’s turn to the on-line Oxford. ‘Conservative’ as an adjective or a noun alludes to an aversion to change or innovation and holding traditional values. Thus we see as similar words ‘traditionalist’, ‘orthodox’ and ‘conventional’. So there is no reason why a communist can’t be a ‘conservative’ in a country where communism ruled the roost for three quarters of a century. (Teaser: what about calls for the restoration of the monarchy? I recall some BBC reporters applying the term ‘traditionalist’ to those!)

Bryce Edwards: Labour’s version of conservatism is no longer popular

New Zealand now essentially has two conservative major parties for the public to choose from. Unfortunately for one of them – the Labour Party – the public increasingly prefers the more authentic conservative option, National. This can be seen in the latest opinion poll showing National continuing to storm ahead of Labour.

According to last night’s Newshub-Reid Research poll, National has nearly a third more support than Labour – 41 per cent compared to just 32 per cent. As a result, Labour is currently projected to lose something like 24 of its MPs at the next election, and be turfed out of power in what could be a landslide reversal of the 2020 victory.

Melanie Phillips: The Tory Jacobins

The reason why conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have lost their way so badly in recent years is that they never understood, and paid scant attention to, the culture wars. In Britain, this has now led some of them to come out as warriors on the wrong side.

Conservatism is not an ideology but an attitude of mind. It involves identifying and holding onto what is most valuable and defending it against erosion or attack. In the 18th century this was embodied in the thinking of Edmund Burke, widely considered to be the philosophical godfather of conservative thought, when he defended freedom and human rights against the barbarism of the French Revolution.