One Nation Britain

In these divided and divisive times, what is the future course for our politics? In this ground-breaking book, Nick Timothy, one of Britain’s leading conservative thinkers and commentators, explores the powerful forces driving great changes in our economy, society and democracy. Drawing on his experience at the top of government, Timothy traces the crisis of Western democracy back to both the mistaken assumptions of philosophical liberalism and the rise of ideological ultra-liberalism on left, right and centre. Sparing no sacred cows, he proposes a new kind of conservatism that respects personal freedom but also demands solidarity. He argues that only by rediscovering a unifying sense of the common good and restoring a mutual web of responsibilities between all citizens and institutions can we reject the extremes of economic and cultural liberalism, overcome our divisions, and remake one nation. He goes on to outline an ambitious practical plan for change, covering issues ranging from immigration to the regulation of Big Tech. Nick Timothy’s original, forensic and thought-provoking analysis is a must-read for anybody tired by the old dogmas of the liberal left, right and centre. It is a major contribution to the debate on the future of conservatism as it grapples with geopolitical shifts, cultural change, and economic uncertainty.

What is One Nation politics? What has it been, and what should be it be today? Since Ed Miliband’s speech at the 2012 Labour Party Conference these questions have been much asked, but not so often clearly answered. Outlining the historical context, and offering suggestions for contemporary thinkers, this comprehensive overview shows how all three major UK political parties have made a significant contribution to the One Nation agenda over the past century and a half. Re-asserting the One Nation tradition inherent in interventionist liberals like Keynes and Lloyd George, it encourages us to look beyond reformist high Tory politicians such as Benjamin Disraeli and sketches out precedents for current politicians in areas such as house building, local government, the living wage, a financial transaction tax, and the welfare state. Providing an accessible guide to the One Nation ideal, Richard Carr gives those of all political persuasions some food for thought whilst pointing the way for future policy making.

Won the 2011 Prize for best publication on Conservatives and Conservatism awarded by the specialist group 'Conservatives and Conservatism' of the UK Political Studies Association.

The election of 2016 prompted journalists and political scientists to write obituaries for the Republican Party—or prophecies of a new dominance. But it was all rather familiar. Whenever one of our two great parties has a setback, we’ve heard: “This is the end of the Democratic Party,” or, “The Republican Party is going out of existence.” Yet both survive, and thrive. We have the oldest and third oldest political parties in the world—the Democratic Party founded in 1832 to reelect Andrew Jackson, the Republican Party founded in 1854 to oppose slavery in the territories. They are older than almost every American business, most American colleges, and many American churches. Both have seemed to face extinction in the past, and have rebounded to be competitive again. How have they managed it? Michael Barone, longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, brings a deep understanding of our electoral history to the question and finds a compelling answer. He illuminates how both parties have adapted, swiftly or haltingly, to shifting opinion and emerging issues, to economic change and cultural currents, to demographic flux. At the same time, each has maintained a constant character. The Republican Party appeals to “typical Americans” as understood at a given time, and the Democratic Party represents a coalition of “out-groups.” They are the yin and yang of American political life, together providing vehicles for expressing most citizens’ views in a nation that has always been culturally, religiously, economically, and ethnically diverse. The election that put Donald Trump in the White House may have appeared to signal a dramatic realignment, but in fact it involved less change in political allegiances than many before, and it does not portend doom for either party. How America’s Political Parties Change (and How They Don’t) astutely explains why these two oft-scorned institutions have been so resilient.

Brexit – a revolutionary moment in British politics. Voters in long-forgotten English towns made their disenchantment clear, overwhelmingly voting to 'take back control' from a remote and defective economic system. Despite this decisive message in 2016, the concerns of these forgotten towns have continued to be all but ignored. David Skelton grew up in Consett, a north-eastern town where the steel industry has deep roots. When the steelworks closed almost forty years ago it lost everything, a story echoed in towns across England. Skelton uses Consett's experience to discuss what has gone wrong and how we can put it right. He considers a broken social contract and the economic and identity liberalism which has neglected the needs of a great bulk of the population. Little Platoons calls for a revival of One Nation to recognise the needs of people in such towns. It argues that a brave Tory Party can shatter decades-old boundaries and redraw the political map by marrying social reform with private enterprise, enhancing community values and allowing long-ignored voters to genuinely take back control.

Michael Oakshott described conservatism as a non-ideological preference for the familiar, tried, actual, limited, near, sufficient, convenient and present. Historically, conservatives have been associated with attempts to sustain social harmony between classes and groups within an organic, hierarchical order grounded in collective history and cultural values. Yet, in recent decades, conservatism throughout the English-speaking world has been associated with radical social and economic policy, often championing free-market models which substitute the free movement of labour and forms of competition and social mobility for organic hierarchy and noblesse oblige. The radical changes associated with such policies call into question the extent to which contemporary conservatism is conservative, rather than ideological. This book seeks to explore contemporary conservative political thought with regard to such topics as, ‘One Nation’ politics and Big Society, sovereignty, multiculturalism and international blocs, paternalism and negative liberty with regard to narcotics, pornography and education, regional and international development, and public faith, establishment and religious diversity. This book will be published as a special issue of Global Discourse.

Ian Gilmour has been a Conservative MP, editor of Spectator, and is the author of the acclaimed Dancing With Dogma. With this book, he offers a radical and critical history of the Conservative Party since 1945.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER A call to action from three of Washington's premier political scholar-journalists, One Nation After Trump offers the definitive work on the threat posed by the Trump presidency and how to counter it. American democracy was never supposed to give the nation a president like Donald Trump. We have never had a president who gave rise to such widespread alarm about his lack of commitment to the institutions of self-government, to the norms democracy requires, and to the need for basic knowledge about how government works. We have never had a president who raises profound questions about his basic competence and his psychological capacity to take on the most challenging political office in the world. Yet if Trump is both a threat to our democracy and a product of its weaknesses, the citizen activism he has inspired is the antidote. The reaction to the crisis created by Trump’s presidency can provide the foundation for an era of democratic renewal and vindicate our long experiment in self-rule. The award-winning authors of One Nation After Trump explain Trump’s rise and the danger his administration poses to our free institutions. They also offer encouragement to the millions of Americans now experiencing a new sense of citizenship and engagement and argue that our nation needs a unifying alternative to Trump’s dark and divisive brand of politics—an alternative rooted in a New Economy, a New Patriotism, a New Civil Society, and a New Democracy. One Nation After Trump is the essential book for our era, an unsparing assessment of the perils facing the United States and an inspiring roadmap for how we can reclaim the future.

It is usual to see the United Kingdom as an island of continuity in an otherwise convulsed and unstable Europe; its political history a smooth sequence of administrations, a story of building a welfare state and coping with decline. But what if Britain's history was approached from a different angle? What if we wrote about it with as we might write the history of Germany, say, or the Soviet Union, as a story of power, and of transformation? David Edgerton's major new book breaks out of the confines of traditional British national history to reveal an unfamiliar place, subject to radical discontinuities. Out of a liberal, capitalist, genuinely global power of a unique kind, there arose from the 1940s a distinct British nation. This was committed to internal change, making it much more like the great continental powers. From the 1970s it became bound up both with the European Union and with foreign capital in new ways. Such a perspective produces new and refreshed understanding of everything from the nature of British politics to the performance of British industry. Packed with surprising examples and arguments, The Rise and Fall of the British Nationgives us a grown-up, unsentimental history, one which is crucial at a moment of serious reconsideration for the country and its future.

"Conservatism focuses on an exemplary core of France, Britain, Germany and the United States. It describes the parties, politicians and thinkers of the right, bringing out strengths and weaknesses in conservative thought"--Provided by publisher.