The theory and practice of party modernisation: The conservative party under David Cameron, 2005–2015

The UK government and the 0.7% international aid target: Opinion among Conservative parliamentarians

“…To get the electorate to listen to the arguments required a major change in terms of their presentation -i.e. Cameron as the new face (one uncontaminated with the past); their rhetoric and tone (using inclusive language) and their focus (emphasising non-Conservative issues) (Quinn, 2008; see also Kerr andHayton, 2015 andDommett, 2015).…”

Whatever happened to compassionate Conservatism under the Coalition government?

“…A number of commentators have suggested that the approach of the Conservatives, and indeed the Coalition government as a whole, was not particularly 'compassionate' (for example, Griffiths, 2012;Wright, 2012;Eaton, 2014;Patrick, 2015;Bochel and Powell, 2016), and that, similarly, the wider 'modernisation' project can be seen as a failure (Dommett, 2015;Kerr and Hayton, 2015). The remainder of this article explores what happened to compassionate Conservatism during that period.…”

“…Firstly, as noted above, a variety of different terms were used to describe perceived changes of emphasis in the Conservative Party, and the broad and interchangeable use of these, by both politicians and commentators (see also Dommett, 2015;Kerr and Hayton, 2015), was likely to lead to the conflation of different ideas and perspectives. Secondly, there may have been very real differences between the proponents of these approaches, even if they were frequently using the same words and even focusing on the same social problems and Griffiths (2014) differentiates Cameron's progressive conservatism from One Nation conservatism and Red Toryism, arguing that from Disraeli to the 1980s, One Nation conservatism involved progressivism as social justice, and used the state to achieve its ends, rather than cutting back the state.…”

“…By the time of the election the compassionate approach had become much less central in Cameron's speeches, with economic policy and the deficit being the Conservatives' central issues. It is arguable that 'following the banking crisis, the narrative changed' (Page 2015b, p. 71), with the Conservatives blaming the Labour government for its addiction to statism, its profligacy with public spending, and its failure to adequately regulate the financial sector, and, as Bale (2013) puts it, the Conservatives' promise to match Labour's public expenditure plans was 'shredded' in favour of massive cuts in public expenditure (see also Dommett, 2015;Gamble, 2015;Williams, 2015).…”

How the ‘suspect community’ became ‘critical engagers’: the (re)framing of the Irish republican narrative on policing in Northern Ireland

“…Sinn Fein participation in the powersharing institutions created under the GFA birthed a discourse of equality based reform from within that was undermining the traditional Unionist grip on political power (Bean 2007 How extensive or meaningful this consultation process was has since been questioned, exposing internal tension over party modernisation -a process where older, problematic ideological strands are refined to reflect contemporary societal reality through policy change that will appeal to more voters (Dommett 2015). Given the natural unease involved in departing from previous positions, the process is most successful where there is strong internal discipline (Ozbudun 1970).…”