WHAT IS TORYISM FOR?

A CENTURY AGO TORY PARTY CONFERences reliably had motions deploring the “unbalanced” constitution. Even two decades after the 1911 Parliament Act the complaint was still this: what matters about the House of Lords is not its composition but its powers. This urge to do something about an act specifically intended to be a temporary expedient reflected a concern now completely absent in modern Toryism. Put simply: where once the constitution was the central purpose of Toryism — defending it, maintaining it, justifying it — this tradition is now effectively dead. Tories, as now constituted, just don’t care. “Reform” of the House of Lords is the perfect illustration of contemporary Conservative indifference to the constitution. The new Labour government intends to sweep away the remaining hereditary peers. We could laugh at…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2024

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