The Not So Odd Couple: Margaret Thatcher and One Nation Conservatism

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and One Nation Conservatism, and suggests that they were not such an odd couple. Though not a One Nation Conservative herself, Thatcher always viewed One Nation Conservatism in terms of patriotism rather than paternalism. This was an equally potent tradition of One Nation thought which could also be traced back to Disraeli. Thatcher recognised this and she was quite prepared to exploit the alternative Disraelian ideal for her own purposes. One Nation Conservatism, conceived as a form of patriotism, enabled Thatcher to domesticate the ideas of the American-led New Right: it was one nation of property owners which she wanted to create in 1980s Britain.

Keywords:

• Thatcher
• Disraeli
• One Nation Conservatism
• Domestication
• Patriotism
• Property Ownership

Acknowledgements

Thatcher copyright material reprinted with permission from www.margaretthatcher.org, the official website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. I would also like to thank Chris Collins, site editor, for his help. My sister, Joanne E. Jones, provided useful comments upon an earlier draft of this article. Finally, I would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their constructive criticism.

Notes

 [1] Cowley and Bailey, ‘Peasants' Uprising or Religious War?’, 599–629.

 [2] Baker and Fountain, ‘Eton Gent or Essex Man?’, 90–4.

 [3] Dorey, ‘Exhaustion of a Tradition’, 47–65.

 [4] Green, Ideologies of Conservatism, 236–7.

 [5] Critchley, Westminster Blues, 50.

 [6] Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 104.

 [7] Tony Baldry, MP, Interview, 13 January 1999. He said, ‘When Margaret used to ask is he one of us what she really meant was is he a One Nation Conservative.’

 [8] Young, One of Us, 490.

 [9] Evans, ‘Thatcher and the Victorians’, 601–20.

[10] Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 8.

[11] Robert Chesshyre and Laurence Marks, ‘In Search of Margaret Thatcher’, The Observer, 16 February 1975.

[12] Margaret Thatcher, Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, London, 11 January 1996, Thatcher Archive: press release, Margaret Thatcher Foundation (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches). All subsequent references from this source will be abbreviated to Margaret Thatcher Foundation Website (MTFW).

[13] Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1, 383.

[14] Lord Gilmour, Interview, 6 March 1998.

[15] Evans and Taylor, From Salisbury to Major, 228–30.

[16] Evans, ‘Earl of Stockton's Critique of Thatcherism’, 24–31.

[17] Gilmour, Interview, 6 March 1998.

[18] Green, ‘One Nation’, 216–7.

[19] Walsha, ‘One Nation Group and One Nation Conservatism’, 69–120; Seawright, ‘One Nation’, 69–90.

[20] Walsha, ‘One Nation Group and One Nation Conservatism’, 69–120; Seawright, ‘One Nation’, 72.

[21] Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1, ch. 12.

[22] Letwin, Anatomy of Thatcherism, ch. 4.

[23] Porter, ‘“Though Not An Historian Myself…”’, 249.

[24] Thatcher, The Path to Power. In an equally revealing example, Chris Patten recalled how Thatcher refused to let her prejudices be swayed by the views of historians when it came to Germany. Patten, Not Quite the Diplomat, 50.

[25] Davies, We, The Nation, 317.

[26] Dorey, British Politics Since 1945, 167.

[27] Dorey, British Politics Since 1945, 168.

[28] Maude, One Nation Revisited, 3.

[29] Boyce, ‘Gladstone and Ireland’, 105–22.

[30] Aughey, Jones and Riches, Conservative Political Tradition, 132.

[31] Minford, ‘Inflation, Unemployment, and the Pound’, 50–3.

[32] Barker, Politics, Peoples, and Government, 108. See also his Political Ideas in Modern Britain , 198–9.

[33] Margaret Thatcher, speech in Zagreb, 16 September 1998, Thatcher Archive, MTFW.

[34] Quoted in Evans, ‘Thatcher and the Victorians’, 605.

[35] Greenleaf, British Political Tradition, chs. 8 and 9.

[36] Green, Ideologies of Conservatism, ch. 8.

[37] Brand, British Parliamentary Parties, 258.

[38] Quoted in Heffer, Like the Roman, 958.

[39] Heffer, Like the Roman, 745, 934.

[40] Thatcher, Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, 11 January 1996, MTFW.

[41] Wickham-Jones, ‘Right Turn’, 74–89.

[42] Bulpitt, ‘Discipline of the New Democracy’, 19–39.

[43] Norton, ‘“The Lady's Not For Turning” But What About The Rest?’, 41–58.

[44] Whiteley, Seyd and Richardson, True Blues, chs. 3 and 6.

[45] Evans, ‘“A Tiny Little Footnote in History”’.

[46] Clark, Diaries, 134 (entry for 24 January 1986). In his memoirs, Heseltine commented about Brittan in similar terms: ‘I am convinced that Downing Street saw him as a convenient scapegoat.’ Heseltine, Life in the Jungle, 326.

[47] Gilmour and Garnett, Whatever Happened to the Tories, 330.

[48] Peters, ‘Anti-Socialism in British Politics’, 343.

[49] Quoted in Horne, Macmillan 1894–1956, 344.

[50] Horne, Macmillan 1894–1956, 346.

[51] Crewe, ‘Thatcher Legacy’, 14.

[52] Walker regarded this as a particularly important concession by the Prime Minister and it influenced his decision to accept Thatcher's offer of the position of Secretary of State for Wales after the 1987 election, and his work at the Welsh Office over the next three years. Walker, Staying Power, ch. 15.

[53] Morgan, People's Peace, 467.

[54] Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 2, 352.

[55] Erith Observer and Kentish Times, 10 February 1950.

[56] Margaret Roberts, ‘Two Contemporaries—Marx and Disraeli’, Young Kent Forum, No. 3 (1 October 1949), MTFW.

[57] Margaret Roberts, ‘Two Contemporaries—Marx and Disraeli’, Young Kent Forum, No. 3 (1 October 1949), MTFW

[58] Margaret Thatcher, speech to party rally in Birmingham, 19 April 1979, Harvey Thomas MSS: OUP transcript, MTFW, 1.

[59] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 983, col. 1615, 1 May 1980.

[60] Margaret Thatcher, speech to First National Congress of Union de Centro Democratico, Madrid, 21 October 1978, Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 1339/78, MTFW, 4.

[61] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 170, col. 1550, 19 April 1990.

[62] Margaret Thatcher, speech in Finchley, 2 May 1979, Harvey Thomas MSS: OUP transcript, MTFW, 4.

[63] Margaret Thatcher, ‘My Kind of Tory Party’, The Daily Telegraph, 30 January 1975.

[64] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Scottish Party Conference, Perth, 10 May 1985, Thatcher Archive: transcript, MTFW, 2.

[65] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Conservative Central Council, Buxton, 19 March 1988, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 3–4.

[66] Margaret Thatcher, speech at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, 30 September 1988, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 10.

[67] Cunningham, ‘Language of Patriotism’, 8–33.

[68] Blake, Conservative Party, 126–8.

[69] Cunningham, ‘Language of Patriotism’, 22–3.

[70] Blake, Conservative Party, 117.

[71] Dorey, British Politics since 1945, 165.

[72] Young, One of Us, 40.

[73] Evans, ‘Thatcher and the Victorians’, 615.

[74] Margaret Thatcher, speech at a parliamentary lunch, Wellington, 10 September 1976, Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 832/76, MTFW, 3.

[75] Margaret Thatcher, speech at Conservative Local Government Conference, London, 3 March 1979, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 28.

[76] Margaret Thatcher, speech at Conservative Local Government Conference, London, 3 March 1979, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 8.

[77] Thatcher, speech to Conservative Central Council, 19 March 1988, MTFW, 55.

[78] Sleaford Gazette, 29 June 1945.

[79] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Conservative Party Conference, Blackpool, 14 October 1977, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 19.

[80] Margaret Thatcher, speech to party rally at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, 16 July 1977, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 3.

[81] Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Scottish Conservative Party Conference, Perth, 14 May 1982, Thatcher Archive: transcript, MTFW, 6. See also her speech to the Mid-Bedfordshire Conservatives, Shuttleworth Agricultural College, 30 April 1982, Thatcher Archive: OUP transcript, MTFW, 6.

[82] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 108, col. 21, 12 January 1987. For Macmillan's own view see his volume of memoirs entitled the Winds of Change, 99–101.

[83] Margaret Thatcher, speech at Lord Mayor's Banquet, City of London, 16 November 1981, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 10, 12, 32.

[84] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Social Services Conference Dinner, Liverpool, 2 December 1976, Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 1201/76, MTFW, 1, 2, 10.

[85] Brittan, ‘There is no Such Thing as Society’, 7.

[86] She wrote that ‘The error to which I was objecting was the confusion of society with the state as the helper of first resort.’ Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 626.

[87] Margaret Thatcher, radio interview for IRN, 31 December 1982, Thatcher Archive: transcript, MTFW, 2.

[88] Roberts, ‘Two Contemporaries’, 1 October 1949, MTFW.

[89] Margaret Thatcher, ‘Britain Can Win’, News of the World, 22 September 1974.

[90] Margaret Thatcher, interview for The Sunday Times, 27 February 1983.

[91] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Conservative Party Conference, Bournemouth, 10 October 1986, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 26.

[92] Margaret Thatcher, television interview for ITN, 11 May 1987, Thatcher Archive: COI transcript, MTFW, 5.

[93] Margaret Thatcher, speech to party rally in Harrogate, 9 June 1987, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 34.

[94] Margaret Thatcher, television interview for Weekend World, 16 January 1983, Thatcher Archive: LWT transcript, MTFW, 29.

[95] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Conservative Candidates' Conference, Birmingham, 25 April 1987, Thatcher Archive: transcript, MTFW, 8. See also her interview for the Manchester Evening News, 16 April 1987.

[96] Margaret Thatcher, speech to Conservative Trade Unionists Conference, Blackpool, 30 November 1985, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 20. See also her speech to the Conservative Women's Conference, London, 23 May 1984, Thatcher Archive: speaking text, MTFW, 44.

[97] The Times, 15 May 1987.