Reading Peter Hitchens, one bit of text leapt out:
Conservatives are "confronted with the dogmas of Fabianism, egalitarianism and now Gramscian/Marcusian cultural revolution …”.
“If conservatives cannot be bothered to understand, analyse or oppose these forces, then they will be overwhelmed by them. This is the reason for the famous 'ratchet', under which Tory governments never reverse any substantial part of Labour's changes, and instead learn to live in an increasingly left-wing state until there is nothing let to conserve. It is also the reason why so many Tory governments have been 'in office, but not in power'."
How true. While I don’t agree with all that Mr Hitchens wrote, I cannot disagree with that. Conservatism does indeed face a "Gramscian" threat - the long march, triumphant of the left through the institutions and the quangos.
Think of all those mandatory, politically-correct policies that every local council now has in place. Did you vote for that? Precisely. The centre right is being squeezed by a ratchet. After
18 years of Tory rule in the 1980 / 1990s, were the default setting of
the British state further to the left, or the right, than they were in
1979? Look at the output of the Arts Council, the QCA, the BBC, the judiciary and probation service. Or indeed, the Foreign Office. We are governed by an inherently leftist state. Conservatism cannot win under the status quo. We cannot win if things stay as they are. Recognising
this, some Conservative thinkers have tried to develop not only a
critique of the quango state, but a plan for change. Indeed, in The Plan, Daniel Hannan and I suggest how the Conservatives might challenge the status quo. Instead of merely changing government, we offer to change the way we are governed. Power would be devolved away from big, centralised government. It would be pushed downward to individuals and town halls. The
institutions of the state - including Parliament, diplomats, quango
chiefs and the judiciary - would be made directly democratically
accountable. In doing so, we would shift the default settings of the British state from left to mainstream. You can read more details of our analysis at www.Renew-Britain.com Please read it, and let me know if you think it’s time for a new kind of Conservatism?
