Theresa Mirror?
It is well known that UK Prime Minister Theresa May is trying hard to win over key Labour heartland voters with various left-wing (some would say socialist) policies. The only other woman prime minister, a very electorally successful fellow Conservative, Margaret Thatcher managed to win consistently increasing numbers of votes with every election. However, Mrs Thatcher used a wildly different campaign strategy, rather than surrendering many key conservative values as May has done, Thatcher went to the other extreme. She privatised major industries including energy, water and the Royal Mail, lowered direct income taxes, set limits on public spending, and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing. To a great extent, however, it appears that despite the incredible unpopularity of the opposition, May has felt the need to mirror major left-wing political figures rather than push hard for her party's traditional values.
When asked about this new not-so-Tory ideology of hers, May replied, 'There is no Mayism. I know you journalists like to write about it. There is good solid Conservatism, which puts the interests of the country and the interests of ordinary working people at the heart of everything we do in government'.
In 1942, Liberal economist William Beveridge published his famous and highly influential 'Beveridge Report'. In the report, Beveridge outlined five 'Giant Evils' of British society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease, and went on to propose massive welfare system to solve these problems. Beveridge's ideas remain so influential that there is to this day a significant faction of socially liberal, left-wing Liberal Democrats, including the current party leader, Tim Farron, called the Beveridge Group.
The recently released Conservative manifesto, 'FORWARD TOGETHER', begins with 'Five giant challenges' including 'enduring social divisions'. Is May echoing the Liberal Beveridge?
Joseph Chamberlain, another radical Liberal was the mayor of Birmingham in the 1870s. In his tenure, he cleared slums and built several schools and libraries. In her manifesto, May says 'True conservatism means a commitment to country and community, a belief not just in society but in the good that Government can do'. This sounds rather like something Chamberlain said in a speech he gave in Ipswich in 1885 when he delivered a speech in Ipswich. 'The community as a whole, co-operating for the benefit of all, may do something to make the life of all its citizens, and above all the poorest of them, somewhat better, somewhat nobler, somewhat happier'. The Conservatives have selected Caroline Squire, Chamberlain's great great grand-daughter, to stand in Birmingham Edgbaston, a marginal seat currently held by Labour.
Benjamin Disraeli, a Tory Prime Minister cannot exactly be as described as left-wing but was something of an ideological revolutionary for the Tories in his own way. In 1845, he published his novel, Sybil, or The Two Nations, in which he outlines the terrible conditions in which the Victorian working classes were living. He bases upon this his idea of One-nation conservatism. In her first speech as prime minister, Theresa May called herself a One-nation conservative and outlined her ideas for social justice.
If the Prime Minister seeks to win over Blairites, she doesn't need to put in any effort. The majority of Blairites are moderate liberals who prefer Cameon's 'Big Society' to Corbyn's hardcore socialism. If she seeks to win the working classes, she should focus on the same ideas that have already caused them to desert the Labour Party twice (in 2015, many voted for UKIP and in the EU referendum, many more voted for Brexit), immigration. She doesn't need to give up Thatcherism or adopt the ideology of Blair's New Labour.