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Author Topic: Conservative revival?  (Read 65 times)
Peter1469
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« on: May 10, 2008, 02:05:10 PM »

Here is a good article about the revival of “conservative movement” in Europe. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/opinion/09brooks.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

That means, first, moving beyond the Thatcherite tendency to put economics first. As Oliver Letwin, one of the leading Tory strategists put it: “Politics, once econo-centric, must now become socio-centric.” David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, makes it clear that his primary focus is sociological. Last year he declared: “The great challenge of the 1970s and 1980s was economic revival. The great challenge in this decade and the next is social revival.” In another speech, he argued: “We used to stand for the individual. We still do. But individual freedoms count for little if society is disintegrating. Now we stand for the family, for the neighborhood — in a word, for society.”

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As such, the Conservative Party has spent a lot of time thinking about how government should connect with citizens. Basically, everything should be smaller, decentralized and interactive. They want a greater variety of schools, with local and parental control. They want to reverse the trend toward big central hospitals. Health care, Cameron says, is as much about regular long-term care as major surgery, and patients should have the power to construct relationships with caretakers, pharmacists and local facilities.
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Alea iacta est
Vermouth
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« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2008, 04:32:46 PM »

The Labour party has been in power so long it's no wonder the Conservative party is on the rise. Will the deficit be the final nail in the coffin? It's interesting to watch what's happening in the UK although it will be some time before these lessons can be applied in the US.
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Mr. Dirlewanger
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« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2008, 05:30:16 PM »

Interesting. I don't think traditional European throne and altar conservatives valued decentralization but I can understand the emphasis on individualism. The conservatives detested collectivist ideologies be they right or left (i.e. fascism and communism) and only preferred the former if there were no alternative to communist revolution. 
« Last Edit: May 10, 2008, 06:22:54 PM by Mr. Dirlewanger » Logged

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