One Nation Conservatism in a Nutshell

For the last seven years, we’ve been governed by the Conservative and Unionist Party who follow an ideology of Conservatism. Some of the key concepts of Conservatism include a belief that some people are natural born leaders and others are not, an encouragement of property ownership and an emphasis on the need for rules and authority. There is little trust given to the public under a Conservative government as the ideology maintains that human nature is selfish and anyone would exploit the rules if given the chance. As the name suggests, Conservatism places value on tradition, believing that tradition gives people a national identity and sense of belonging.

Conservatism was founded by Edmund Burke but the various sub sections have different ‘founders’ or prominent figures that gave relevance to the movement.

One of the most important types of Conservatism is One Nation.

One Nation conservatism is the belief that there should not be class divides or a gap between the rich and poor. This doesn’t mean that people should all have the same level of wealth or property – it just means that everyone should have an equal level of social mobility regardless of circumstance. The basic principle of One Nation is that the rich and the establishment have a natural obligation to help the poor. This type of Conservatism is the one Prime Ministers such as David Cameron, Neville Chamberlain and Benjamin Disraeli  identified with. Theresa May also describes herself as a One Nation conservative. Benjamin Disraeli came up with the term ‘one nation’ after he recognised that society was beginning to split into two nations – the rich and the poor. This observation was made all the way back in the 1800s and clearly, we’ve strayed a long way away from what Disraeli envisaged.