The devastating rebuff administered to the Conservative Party by
British voters in May of this year came as no surprise. The party was
tired, publicly split on policy, and scandal-ridden. The voters did
the party a favor by granting it respite from the rigors of office.
But where does it go from here?
Ten years ago Lord Carrington wrote in his memoirs of the advantages
of his time in Australia as governor-general in lending perspective
to his assessment of Britain's true interests. Physical distance
allowed him to see the wood from the trees. His insight can be used
today in analyzing where the Conservatives went wrong. For the future
health of the conservative cause in Britain, it is important that the
party use its downtime well. It must get its post-mortem right.
Viewed from across the Atlantic, there is no mystery about how the
Conservative Party was brought to its knees. This feat was
accomplished by a leader who foisted upon it an untenable, crassly
inconsistent policy based on a mixture of arrogance, ignorance,
self-indulgence, and self-deception. The leader was Margaret
Thatcher. The policy was Euro-rejectionism. The Conservatives have
rid themselves of the former, but the latter lives on in the
parliamentary party. In rejecting as its new leader former Chancellor
of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke in favor of William Hague, a Thatcher
protégé, the party has shown that it is now dominated by those who
believe that the only significant events in European history are the
battles of Agincourt, Trafalgar, and Waterloo. This is not an
electable party. If it is to regain the voters' confidence, it must
purge itself of Thatcher's Euro-rejectionist incubus.
This thesis may require a little elaboration, but in fact the
argument is straightforward. Compare the following quotations:
