This book offers a comprensive and accessible study of the electoral strategies, governing approaches and ideological thought of the British Conservative Party from Winston Churchill to David Cameron. Timothy Heppell integrates a chronological narrative with theoretical evaluation, examining the interplay between the ideology of Conservatism and the political practice of the Conservative Party both in government and in opposition. The author considers the the ethos of the Party within the context of statecraft theory, looking at the art of winning elections and of governing competently.
Heppell examines the triumph and subsequent degeneration of one-nation Conservatism in the 1945 to 1965 period, the absence of a viable statecraft strategy in the Heath era, the emergence and pre-eminence of Thatcherism between 1975 and 1990 and the implosion of the Thatcherite model in the Major era. He goes on to look at the partial success of Cameron and the modernizers in crafting a statecraft strategy which reflected the impact of New Labour, a strategy which led eventually to the creation of an imagery of recovery and renewal which has allowed the Party a re-entry into government as a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
