It is often said that conservatism is not a philosophy but a disposition. It reflects a desire for the proper ordering of things, for right conduct in the relations of people, interests, and nations. Style therefore matters. As William Waldegrave put it in these pages recently, Conservatives believe in “civility, decency, respect for tradition and for the middle way”.
Yet there is a complementary, more rumbustious part of the conservative disposition. Some of the great figures of the Conservative Party’s history – Peel, Disraeli, Churchill, Thatcher – were traditionalists only in the sense of restoring the country, often with some force, to a path it had left. In this they reflected a vital feature of English history. From the Levellers to the Jacobites, the Young Englanders to the Luddites, conservative radicals – often romantic, sometimes vulgar, occasionally downright vandalous – have always fought to wrest back power from usurping elites and restore the settled life of the national community.
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