ABSTRACT
There is no one text, or philosopher, that can be held up as the gospel of Conservative ideology. Conservatives seek to argue that their politics are based upon pragmatism rather than ideology. The tendency is to express a belief in the Conservative ‘temperament’ rather than a Conservative ‘philosophy’. This distinction is important and leads to two outcomes. Firstly, by presenting them selves as non-ideological Conservatives are able to attack other political doc trines by characterising ideology as a negative and restrictive mode of thought. This provoked J.S. Mill to label the Conservatives ‘the stupid party’ in 1861. Secondly, the belief in pragmatism is considered a source of strength for it enables the party to reinvent itself under different leaders and different polit ical contexts. As Iain Macleod declared at the 1962 party conference: ‘There is no new Conservatism, only a restatement of old beliefs in modern terms.’
