Sunday, January 23, 2005

Conservatism Beyond Thatcher

I've just been skipping through the book reviews in yesterday's Guardian and came across this piece on Kieron O'Hara's After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher. It seems like a good plea for conservatism to return to the basic principles espoused by Burke et al: skepticism of big plans and control of society, sympathy for the less well off. I doubt I'd agree with much of it, though I might agree with some of it (I still have some faith in improvement, or at least in the European model!) but it would be a relief to read an intellectual who had something positive to say about the idea of decent conservatism and about what makes it attractive for so many people, without the shrillness of the American neos or the social cruelty of the Thatcherite free-marketeers. One for the ever-expanding to-read list, methinks!

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