A New Direction or Another False Dawn? David Cameron and the Crisis of British Conservatism

Shooting the past? The modernisation of Conservative Party employment relations policy under David Cameron

“…Since David Cameron was elected to lead the Conservative Party in 2005 his efforts to modernise the party and render it more electable have been heavily scrutinised (Bale, 2008; Denham and O'Hara, 2007; Dorey, 2007; Evans, 2008; Fielding, 2009; Kerr, 2007; O'Hara, 2007; Reeves, 2008, inter alia ). This section confines itself to providing an overview of the contours of Cameron's modernisation project and its possible significance in order to frame the discussion of the Conservative Party's approach to employment relations.…”

“…Cameron soon set about ‘decontaminating’ the Conservative brand (Quinn, 2008; Reeves, 2008) and attempting to create ‘a new kind of Conservative Party which would appeal to a new generation of Conservatives and, crucially, a new generation of Conservative voters’ (Evans, 2008: 294). This has also involved an explicit attempt to distance Cameron's Conservative Party from Thatcherism (Dorey, 2007; Evans, 2008).…”

‘A Bit Less Bunny-Hugging and a Bit More Bunny-Boiling’? Qualifying Conservative Party Change under David Cameron

“…The first of these (Denham and O'Hara, 2007a) was a comprehensive look at 'modernization' in the Conservative Party since 1945 which then fed into a discussion of the leadership contest of 2005 and the conclusion that any modernization undertaken by Cameron would not necessarily win the wholehearted support of the party, nor, on the evidence of the past, guarantee it electoral victory. The third article (Dorey, 2007) -an impressively comprehensive (if inevitably interim) examination of Cameron's apparent attempt to disavow Thatcherism and ideologically reposition his party in the centre ground of British politics -likewise concluded that the attempt, albeit in its author's view genuine and far-reaching, was also unlikely to produce the electoral goods. This article differs on two counts.…”

Towards Exit from the EU: The Conservative Party’s Increasing Euroscepticism since the 1980s

“…This was part of his initial attempt at 'de-toxifying' the Conservative Party's image, by placing much less emphasis on traditional Conservative (or Thatcherite) themes such as crime, immigration, public sector inefficiency and welfare dependency. Instead, he boldly promoted more 'progressive' issues such as environmentalism, eradicating poverty, same-sex relationships, social justice, and worklife balance (Bale, 2010, Chapter 7;Dorey, 2007;Dorey, Garnett, & Denham, 2011, Chapters 3-4;Hayton, 2016).…”