ABSTRACT
Before exploring the reasons for the fate of ‘One Nation’ politics within the Conservative Party, it is necessary to identify its core principles, and to explain why they proved so attractive to many senior figures within the party. The name, derived from Benjamin Disraeli’s novel Sybil (1845), suggests a concern for relations between ‘The Two Nations’ – the rich and the poor – whose polarised existence Disraeli deplored. While this was indeed an important theme for One Nation Conservatives, it is a mistake to look for an authoritative exposition of ‘One Nation’ ideas either from Disraeli himself, or from the One Nation Group of Conservatives formed by nine newly elected MPs in 1950. In the first case, while Disraeli certainly expressed sentiments which many post-war Conservatives found congenial, the context of his career bears no resemblance to the situation in Britain after 1945 (see, e.g., Hurd and Young 2013). Equally, although the One Nation Group has included many politicians who exemplify the approach, its appeal was considerably wider than the membership of a single and relatively small coterie. Furthermore, as recent scholarship has demonstrated, even the founder-members of the group disagreed on key issues (Walsha 2003; Seawright 2010).
