Our distinctive history also had another consequence — creating the world's first market economy. That is what you get when free people can exchange goods and services protected by the impartial enforcement of the law of contract. Because we were the world's first market economy — capitalism without factories — we then gave the world the Industrial Revolution. That has left Conservatives as the bearers of a tradition which created capitalism and yet also anxious that capitalism could erode some of the very values and ties of association which we value. Scruton clearly feels this and appears to be particularly hostile to big business. He is a cottage industry Conservative — indeed he is such a prolific writer that he is a cottage industry in his own right. Of course it is marvellous if someone has the enterprise to set up a local window-cleaning firm or reopens the village store and makes a go of it. But I am even more excited when our entrepreneurs create a small business which turns into ARM or Virgin or Vodafone. In fact Britain is already doing very well when it comes to business start-ups — our problem is that we have not got enough big businesses.
The Liberal split in the 19th century brought Joe Chamberlain and the Liberal Unionists into alliance with the Conservatives, leading to the creation of the Conservative and Unionist party in 1912. Chamberlain's family firm is now part of GKN, still based in the Midlands and a FTSE 100 company. The old Conservative party of the English shires merged with parts of the old Liberal party who brought with them leaders of big business and the big cities. Meanwhile the centre — Right on the Continent often remained divided between a rural, traditionalist, confessional, peasant party and an urban, anti-clerical, pro-business, liberal party. Those two distinctive strands came together in British Conservatism at the beginning of the 20th century and were crucial to our electoral success. We should celebrate that connection and welcome the "metropolitan" and the "big" in today's Conservatism. This modern Conservatism reflects our deepest and sometimes conflicting desires — we want roots, tradition, and belonging, but at the same time we want opportunity, mobility and opportunity. Quite simply our job is to provide both.
Margaret Thatcher recognised the fear that her policies were tearing up the social fabric and something rather precious was being lost. She resolved the problem by appealing to the great Biblical parables —the parable of the talents or the parable of the good Samaritan. She was absolutely clear — as is Scruton — that capitalism depended on and was shaped by a prior set of Christian moral values. The Centre for Social Justice, founded by Iain Duncan Smith, continues to embody that appeal to a moral framework. But that framework may not work for a modern society with such a range of faiths and culture, including a very strong tradition of secularism. Scruton does try to construct his arguments independently of his religious beliefs, but in many ways his book and the virtues he praises are deeply religious. He eschews newer intellectual disciplines such as game theory, evolutionary biology and neuroscience. I personally find these "-ologies" full of insights which strengthen our Conservatism and enable us to shape it for the 21st century.
Burke famously said: "Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them." Roger Scruton is one of our great men of speculation and there may be even more resources to understand this latent wisdom than he draws on in this book.
The Liberal split in the 19th century brought Joe Chamberlain and the Liberal Unionists into alliance with the Conservatives, leading to the creation of the Conservative and Unionist party in 1912. Chamberlain's family firm is now part of GKN, still based in the Midlands and a FTSE 100 company. The old Conservative party of the English shires merged with parts of the old Liberal party who brought with them leaders of big business and the big cities. Meanwhile the centre — Right on the Continent often remained divided between a rural, traditionalist, confessional, peasant party and an urban, anti-clerical, pro-business, liberal party. Those two distinctive strands came together in British Conservatism at the beginning of the 20th century and were crucial to our electoral success. We should celebrate that connection and welcome the "metropolitan" and the "big" in today's Conservatism. This modern Conservatism reflects our deepest and sometimes conflicting desires — we want roots, tradition, and belonging, but at the same time we want opportunity, mobility and opportunity. Quite simply our job is to provide both.
Margaret Thatcher recognised the fear that her policies were tearing up the social fabric and something rather precious was being lost. She resolved the problem by appealing to the great Biblical parables —the parable of the talents or the parable of the good Samaritan. She was absolutely clear — as is Scruton — that capitalism depended on and was shaped by a prior set of Christian moral values. The Centre for Social Justice, founded by Iain Duncan Smith, continues to embody that appeal to a moral framework. But that framework may not work for a modern society with such a range of faiths and culture, including a very strong tradition of secularism. Scruton does try to construct his arguments independently of his religious beliefs, but in many ways his book and the virtues he praises are deeply religious. He eschews newer intellectual disciplines such as game theory, evolutionary biology and neuroscience. I personally find these "-ologies" full of insights which strengthen our Conservatism and enable us to shape it for the 21st century.
Burke famously said: "Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them." Roger Scruton is one of our great men of speculation and there may be even more resources to understand this latent wisdom than he draws on in this book.
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