DOCSLIB.ORG

THE CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA Jon Trickett the CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA Jon Trickett the CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA THE CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA Jon Trickett THE CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA Jon Trickett JUNE 2012 About the author Jon Trickett served as Leader of Leeds City Council for 10 years, before becoming MP for Hemsworth, Yorkshire, in a by-election in 1996. Jon attended Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister without Portfolio and served as PPS to Prime Minister Gordon Brown prior to being appointed Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office by Ed Miliband in October 2011. Published by Compass Southbank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ t: +44 (0) 207 463 0632 e: [email protected] www.compassonline.org.uk Designed by Soapbox, www.soapbox.co.uk Contents The Conservative Dilemma 2 Introduction 2 1. The Conservatives battle for an identity 3 2. 1992–2005 elections – change in British social, political and economic attitudes 4 3. 2010 General Election 6 4. True Blue Tories 7 5. The 2010 Cohort 7 6. Conservative Considerers 9 7. The Double Threat 9 8. Spring 2012: The NHS + the Budget 10 9. UKIP 11 10. Resolving the Dilemma? 11 11. Are there lessons for Labour? 12 Endnotes 13 The Conservative Dilemma | 1 The Conservative Introduction Dilemma In the 20th Century it was often said that the Conservative Party was arguably the most “I am their leader. I must follow them.” successful political party in any Western Andrew Bonar Law Democracy; between the first post war election and 1997 the Conservatives were in power for 52 “We are not retreating. We are just advancing in years. The party continually reinvented itself and another direction.” was repeatedly elected into power. In 2010 they General McArthur surprised many by appearing to adopt a cloak of liberal social attitudes and inclusiveness which The Tories are in trouble. The day to day problems led to the Coalition government. they face are self-evident. But in May this year we passed the 20th anniversary of the last time the Conservatives But here we speak of a much deeper problem. obtained a majority in the House of Commons. They have not won an election for more than Despite their record of success in the last 20 years. In addition, as Tim Montgomerie, century, it is possible to postulate that they are the editor of the Conservative Home web site facing an existential crisis which began to emerge has pointed out, no PM in almost 40 years has most clearly following the 1992 election. The managed to increase his/her vote share between membership of the Conservative Party reflects elections. They need to find a new identity in a most closely a social group and a set of values modern Britain which they barely understand. which are in rapid decline in Britain. They have Their core demographic is shrinking and under lost half their membership since 2005. It is for threat from UK Independence Party (UKIP), this reason that the accusation that they are ‘out of whilst the values of newer groups of voters stand touch’ has had such resonance in recent months. in clear contrast to their core vote. Finally, they This crisis and the consequential battle for a are relying almost entirely upon their lead upon new identity were never properly resolved in the an aging cohort of voters whilst younger and even years of opposition after 1997. Indeed, the hunger middle aged voters show no serious inclination to for power and re-election prevented a proper vote for them. debate taking place. The Conservative Party faces a deeply The debate about what a modern Conservative problematic future in its search for a parliamentary Party would look like has now begun in earnest. majority. This is not simply the view of a Labour It is highly unusual, for a political party to politician. This is also the opinion of Lord Ashcroft, attempt to discover its identity when in office one of the Conservative Party’s main strategists, and it is possible to see that the high command who believes that his party will “struggle to piece of the Government is becoming preoccupied by together two fifths of the electorate”. We will in internal party management issues rather than part rely on Lord Ashcroft’s polling to explain government, precisely because their party fudged the Tory dilemma and draw on wider sources the issues whilst in opposition. in order to avoid the accusation that the data However, this paper will argue that the struggle is lacking in objectivity. Other sources will be within the high command of the Conservative used to demonstrate that Ashcroft’s research Party reflects a wider problem than simply is accurate, though his conclusions mark the internal political management. In order to win triumph of hope over reason. an outright majority in normal times the Tories now need to reach well beyond their historic base of traditional Conservative voters, which will be termed for the purposes of this pamphlet the “True Blue Tories’. In the 2010 election, they managed to secure the support of a second group of voters. These were people who had rarely voted Conservative 2 | www.compassonline.org.uk before and make up what will be called the ‘2010 But here is a riposte from a senior Tory activist Cohort’ in this pamphlet. The problem for the writing in the Telegraph ‘The party need to have Party is that the 2010 Cohort are substantially courage to stand up for its traditional values. at variance with the characteristics, values, and We should be unashamed about promoting our attitudes of the True Blue Tories. The tensions in ideals and principles. Most voters want controlled holding together this highly conflicted electoral immigration. Most oppose European integration. base are the explanation for the conflict which we And most share our support for freedom under can now see within the Governing party. the law and free markets.’1 In any event, even the coalescence of the And finally there is the Mayor of London. True Blue Tories and 2010 Cohort failed to Boris Johnson used an interview in The Sunday deliver a majority. In order to win outright, Telegraph to make a direct appeal to his party’s the Party needs the support of a further group. core values, presenting himself as a “tax-cutting These are what Lord Ashcroft called the Tory Conservative” in an attempt to place himself as a “Considerers”; people who thought about voting potential leader of the Party’s right wing. Conservative in 2010 but in the end couldn’t Now, we can choose to interpret these bring themselves to do it. This group didn’t in the contending ideas and factions as a curiosity; a end convert into Tory voters because they feared part of the detritus of every day politics and a that the Conservatives would not protect the reflection of the seething personal ambitions NHS and were largely for the rich and privileged which poison so much of Westminster life. rather than for ‘people like us’. To do so would be a mistake and would trivi- Both the 2010 Cohort as well as the Considerers alise the issues at stake. have now deserted the Conservative Party for For the Conservative Party faces an existential reasons which shall be explored in this pamphlet. threat. And all of these surface tensions reflect the underlying decay of the Conservative’s tradi- tional social base. 1. The Conservatives The more perceptive amongst them under- stand the need to change. Lord Ashcroft battle for an identity put it succinctly when he said “The need for new supporters is a mathematical fact.”2 Beneath the suave exteriors, the blue silk ties and But they are in reality thrashing around for Savile Row suits, sophisticated dinner parties, the a new meaning in a period of rapidly shifting faux bonhomie and the coded sentences, tribal demographics which they can barely understand hatreds threaten to consume sections of the lead- let alone control. ership of the Conservative Party. All of this will make fascinating social and Flashes of the venom which now has entered political history, but for Labour it is far more into leading Conservative circles occasionally important than that. In order that Labour can spill over into the public domain. One of the win again we need to understand the processes Conservative’s leading modernisers Francis with which the Conservatives are attempting to Maude allowed his frustration to show for an struggle and to adapt our strategies accordingly. instant when he said “The Conservative Party Throughout this paper I will argue that the will always suffer if it is seen as it is trying to turn Conservative Party’s electoral base is deeply frag- back the clock to an imagined golden era”. Who mented and undergoing fundamental change. else could he have been turning his fire on but This explains the increasingly frenetic character Thatcherites like Liam Fox or Norman Tebbit? of their internal party debates and equally the Or what about Nick Boles MP who said ‘Only attempts to gerrymander the constitutional struc- by showing we really are on the side of ordinary tures of the British political system for their people will we turn the Conservative Party back own advantage. into a truly national party’? We can deduce from It is not the purpose of this paper to suggest this that he clearly sees his party as a regional that there is an iron law of politics that they party which is seen as representing only the elite. cannot win again. However, it is clear that the 2 | www.compassonline.org.uk The Conservative Dilemma | 3 long decades of the hegemony of a certain form We will look at three distinct groups of issues of Toryism have now come to an end.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Register of Interests of Members’ Secretaries and Research Assistants
    REGISTER OF INTERESTS OF MEMBERS’ SECRETARIES AND RESEARCH ASSISTANTS (As at 11 July 2018) INTRODUCTION Purpose and Form of the Register In accordance with Resolutions made by the House of Commons on 17 December 1985 and 28 June 1993, holders of photo-identity passes as Members’ secretaries or research assistants are in essence required to register: ‘Any occupation or employment for which you receive over £380 from the same source in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament afforded by your pass. Any gift (eg jewellery) or benefit (eg hospitality, services) that you receive, if the gift or benefit in any way relates to or arises from your work in Parliament and its value exceeds £380 in the course of a calendar year.’ In Section 1 of the Register entries are listed alphabetically according to the staff member’s surname. Section 2 contains exactly the same information but entries are instead listed according to the sponsoring Member’s name. Administration and Inspection of the Register The Register is compiled and maintained by the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Anyone whose details are entered on the Register is required to notify that office of any change in their registrable interests within 28 days of such a change arising. An updated edition of the Register is published approximately every 6 weeks when the House is sitting. Changes to the rules governing the Register are determined by the Committee on Standards in the House of Commons, although where such changes are substantial they are put by the Committee to the House for approval before being implemented.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF on Watching the Watchmen
    REPORT Watching the Watchmen The Growing Case for Recall Elections and Increased Accountability for MPs Sam Goodman About the Author Sam Goodman is the author of the Imperial Premiership: The Role of the Modern Prime Minister in Foreign Policy Making, 1964-2015 (Manchester University Press: 2015). He is currently working as a political adviser to Peter Dowd MP the current Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and has previously worked for a variety of Labour Members of Parliament including: Julie Cooper MP, Sir Mark Hendrick MP, Michael Dugher MP, and Rt. Hon Jack Straw MP. Watching the Watchmen: The Growing Case for Recall Elections and Increased Accountability for MPs Members of the House of Commons have long flirted parliamentary conventions and much procedure with the idea of British exceptionalism—citing the is arcane, which makes it difficult even for the UK’s role as the ‘mother of all parliaments’, its most ardent politically engaged citizen to follow unwritten constitution, its unitary voting system, proceedings and debates in the House of Commons. and the principle of the sovereignty of Parliament This separation between the governors and over the people—as a bulwark against the instability governed is exacerbated further by the limited customarily found in other western democracies. avenues available to the public to hold those elected In modern times, this argument held water as to account, which is exemplified by recent political it delivered stable parliamentary majorities, scandals, including allegations of bullying and peaceful transfers of power between governments, sexual harassment in the House of Commons. At the and kept in check the ideological fringes of both time of writing this report, no MP has been forced major political parties.
    [Show full text]
  • Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland? by Blog Admin February 22, 2013
    blo gs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/02/22/book-review-whatever-happened-to-tory-scotland/ Book Review: Whatever Happened To Tory Scotland? by Blog Admin February 22, 2013 To those of a younger generation, it may be a surprise to learn that Scotland was once ‘true- blue’ Tory territory, with widespread support in the first half of the 20th Century. Yet in the second half of that century, as well as the early years of the next, this support dramatically collapsed, with seemingly little likelihood of any revival. Whatever Happened To Tory Scotland? explores this trajectory, unpacking a broad direction of travel through a series of essays from a range of contributors focusing on specific themes. Andrew Crines found much of great interest in the volume, though was surprised by its brevity. Whatever Happened To Tory Scotland? David Torrance. Edinburgh University Press. 2012. Find this book: With just over 50 per cent of the vote and securing 36 of the 72 possible seats up f or grabs in Scotland, the Scottish Conservatives reached their electoral peak of popular support in 1955. It was, arguably, true-blue Tory territory, representing the power of the Conservative Party over Britain at the height of their national popularity. This was a great position to be in, which makes their f all f rom grace to 16.7 per cent and 1 out of 56 possible seats in 2010 seem all the more dramatic. How can this massive determination be accounted f or? What are the causal f actors? And how, if at all, can these be addressed? David Torrance oversees the history of Scottish Conservatism in this collection of essays presented by a range of academics and commentators, each experts in this f ield.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Unbecoming Silicon Valley: Techno Imaginaries and Materialities in Postsocialist Romania Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vt9c4bq Author McElroy, Erin Mariel Brownstein Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ UNBECOMING SILICON VALLEY: TECHNO IMAGINARIES AND MATERIALITIES IN POSTSOCIALIST ROMANIA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in FEMINIST STUDIES by Erin Mariel Brownstein McElroy June 2019 The Dissertation of Erin McElroy is approved: ________________________________ Professor Neda Atanasoski, Chair ________________________________ Professor Karen Barad ________________________________ Professor Lisa Rofel ________________________________ Professor Megan Moodie ________________________________ Professor Liviu Chelcea ________________________________ Lori Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Erin McElroy 2019 Table of Contents Abstract, iv-v Acknowledgements, vi-xi Introduction: Unbecoming Silicon Valley: Techno Imaginaries and Materialities in Postsocialist Romania, 1-44 Chapter 1: Digital Nomads in Siliconizing Cluj: Material and Allegorical Double Dispossession, 45-90 Chapter 2: Corrupting Techno-normativity in Postsocialist Romania: Queering Code and Computers, 91-127 Chapter 3: The Light Revolution, Blood Gold, and
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Staff Register
    REGISTER OF INTERESTS OF MEMBERS’ SECRETARIES AND RESEARCH ASSISTANTS (As at 15 October 2020) INTRODUCTION Purpose and Form of the Register In accordance with Resolutions made by the House of Commons on 17 December 1985 and 28 June 1993, holders of photo-identity passes as Members’ secretaries or research assistants are in essence required to register: ‘Any occupation or employment for which you receive over £410 from the same source in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament afforded by your pass. Any gift (eg jewellery) or benefit (eg hospitality, services) that you receive, if the gift or benefit in any way relates to or arises from your work in Parliament and its value exceeds £410 in the course of a calendar year.’ In Section 1 of the Register entries are listed alphabetically according to the staff member’s surname. Section 2 contains exactly the same information but entries are instead listed according to the sponsoring Member’s name. Administration and Inspection of the Register The Register is compiled and maintained by the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Anyone whose details are entered on the Register is required to notify that office of any change in their registrable interests within 28 days of such a change arising. An updated edition of the Register is published approximately every 6 weeks when the House is sitting. Changes to the rules governing the Register are determined by the Committee on Standards in the House of Commons, although where such changes are substantial they are put by the Committee to the House for approval before being implemented.
    [Show full text]
  • Download (9MB)
    A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details 2018 Behavioural Models for Identifying Authenticity in the Twitter Feeds of UK Members of Parliament A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF UK MPS’ TWEETS BETWEEN 2011 AND 2012; A LONGITUDINAL STUDY MARK MARGARETTEN Mark Stuart Margaretten Submitted for the degree of Doctor of PhilosoPhy at the University of Sussex June 2018 1 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................ 1 DECLARATION .................................................................................................................................. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................................... 5 FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... 6 TABLES ............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report
    Annual Report Year End March 2013 128 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8TN Email: [email protected] Phone: 020 7611 2569 Class is a company limited by guaranteed 8153706 Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................... 3 Organisation and Administration ............................................................................................. 4 Supporting Unions 2012-2013 ................................................................................................. 4 Management Committee ........................................................................................................ 4 Class National Advisory Panel .................................................................................................. 4 Events ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Publications and Projects .......................................................................................................... 7 Website and Social Media ....................................................................................................... 10 Action: Developing Class ........................................................................................................ 12 Press and Media ...................................................................................................................... 14 Finance Report 2012-2013 .....................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Lord Cecil Parkinson 1
    Lord Cecil Parkinson 1 Trade minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government in 1979, Cecil Parkinson went on to become Conservative Party chairman. He was instrumental in privatizing Britain's state-owned enterprises, particularly electricity. In this interview, Parkinson discusses the rethink of the British Conservative Party in the 1970s, Margaret Thatcher's leadership in the Falklands War, the coal miners' strike, and the privatization of state-owned industries. Rethinking the Conservative Party, and the Role of Keith Joseph INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about Margaret Thatcher during the '70s. After the defeat of [Prime Minister Ted] Heath, Margaret Thatcher almost goes back to school. She and Keith Joseph go to Ralph Harris [at the Institute for Economic Affairs] and say, "Give us a reading list." What's going on here? What's Margaret really doing? LORD CECIL PARKINSON: I think Margaret was very happy with the Heath manifesto. If you look at the Heath manifesto, it was almost a mirror image of her 1979 manifesto. All the things—cutting back the role of the state, getting rid of the nationalized industries, curbing the train unions, cutting of taxes, controlling public expenditure—it's all there. It's a very, very good manifesto. And I've heard her recently compliment him on the 1970 manifesto, which was a slightly sort of backhanded compliment, really. What troubled her was that we could be bounced out of it. We could be moved from doing the things which we knew were right and doing things which we secretly knew were wrong because of circumstances, and I think instinctively she felt this was wrong, but she didn't have the sort of intellectual backup, she felt, to back up her instincts.
    [Show full text]
  • Daily Report Thursday, 30 January 2020 CONTENTS
    Daily Report Thursday, 30 January 2020 This report shows written answers and statements provided on 30 January 2020 and the information is correct at the time of publication (06:39 P.M., 30 January 2020). For the latest information on written questions and answers, ministerial corrections, and written statements, please visit: http://www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/ CONTENTS ANSWERS 7 Civil Servants: Average ATTORNEY GENERAL 7 Earnings 14 Prosecutions: South West 7 Civil Servants: Scotland 14 Restraining Orders: Climate Change 15 Employment 7 Employment: Parents 15 BUSINESS, ENERGY AND Freedom of Information: INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY 8 Disclosure of Information 15 Carbon Emissions 8 Infant Mortality 16 Construction: Billing 9 Police and Crime Electricity 9 Commissioners: Elections 16 Electricity: Costs 10 DEFENCE 17 Energy: Meters 10 [Subject Heading to be Assigned] 17 Hydrogen 11 Army: Deployment 17 Ofgem: Carbon Emissions 11 Army: Recruitment 17 Renewable Energy: Employment 12 Defence: Conferences 20 Solar Power: Non-domestic Defence: Procurement 21 Rates 12 International Military Services: Trains 12 Finance 21 CABINET OFFICE 13 International Military Services: Legal Costs 21 Boston Consulting Group 13 Iran: International Military Buy British Campaign 13 Services 22 Cabinet Office: Sustainable Ministry of Defence: Contracts 22 Development 13 Royal Fleet Auxiliary: Childbirth 14 Procurement 23 Unmanned Air Vehicles 23 Veterans: Northern Ireland 23 Beef: Imports 36 DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND Beef: Sub-Saharan Africa 36 SPORT 24 Dogs: Meat
    [Show full text]
  • Liberal Party Colours
    Conservatives have blue, Labour have red and Liberal Democrats have yellow – but it wasn’t always like that. Graham Lippiatt examines the history of: LIBERal PARTY ColoURS lections of sorts have been than the intrinsic usefulness This was the case in Liverpool and held in the United Kingdom of the message itself.5 Some of Cumbria and across many parts of Esince the days of the knights this has been driven by election south-east England. The Liberal of the shires and burgesses of the legislation such as the use of party colours in Greenwich (then a two- boroughs.1 These elections were logos on ballot papers6 but it has member parliamentary borough in taking place before universal literacy come about principally as society, Kent), which Gladstone represented (in England; Scotland always had communication technology and from 1868 to 1880, were blue. When much higher literacy rates), even politics have changed and the Gladstone fought Greenwich in among the limited electorates nature of political communication 1874 he fought in blue and his two before the Great Reform Acts and organisation has changed Conservative opponents used of 18322 and during the advances with them. The Conservative crimson, while his Radical running towards the mass democratic state Party tree, the Labour rose or the mate, in honour of his support for of the twentieth century. So it Liberal Democrat freebird will Irish home rule, adopted green.8 was important to ensure that rival be the ubiquitous symbols of each More recently, Liberal colours candidates were properly identified, organisation and candidates and were traditionally blue in Berwick particularly in the days before the literature will be adorned in the on Tweed until changed by Alan secret ballot and the printed ballot same blue, red or yellow colours.
    [Show full text]
  • Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet
    Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet Member of Parliament Shadow Cabinet Position Kier Starmer Leader of the Opposition Angela Rayner Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party Anneliese Dodds Chancellor of the Exchequer Lisa Nandy Foreign Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds Home Secretary Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster David Lammy Justice Secretary John Healey Defence Secretary Ed Miliband Business, Energy and Industrial Secretary Emily Thornberry International Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Rebecca Long-Bailey Education Secretary Jo Stevens Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Bridget Philipson Chief Secretary to the Treasury Luke Pollard Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed Communities and Local Government Secretary Thangam Debbonaire Housing Secretary Jim McMahon Transport Secretary Preet Kaur Gill International Development Secretary Louise Haigh Northern Ireland Secretary (interim) Ian Murray Scotland Secretary Nia Griffith Wales Secretary Marsha de Cordova Women and Equalities Secretary Andy McDonald Employment Rights and Protections Secretary Rosena Allin-Khan Minister for Mental Health Cat Smith Minister for Young People and Voter Engagement Lord Falconer Attorney General Valerie Vaz Leader of the House Nick Brown Opposition Chief Whip Baroness Smith Shadow Leader of the Lords Lord McAvoy Lords’ Opposition Chief Whip Prepared by DevoConnect, April 2020. For more information contact [email protected] Keir
    [Show full text]
  • Canadianism, Anglo-Canadian Identities and the Crisis of Britishness, 1964-1968
    Nova Britannia Revisited: Canadianism, Anglo-Canadian Identities and the Crisis of Britishness, 1964-1968 C. P. Champion Department of History McGill University, Montreal A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History February 2007 © Christian Paul Champion, 2007 Table of Contents Dedication ……………………………….……….………………..………….…..2 Abstract / Résumé ………….……..……….……….…….…...……..………..….3 Acknowledgements……………………….….……………...………..….…..……5 Obiter Dicta….……………………………………….………..…..…..….……….6 Introduction …………………………………………….………..…...…..….….. 7 Chapter 1 Canadianism and Britishness in the Historiography..….…..………….33 Chapter 2 The Challenge of Anglo-Canadian ethnicity …..……..…….……….. 62 Chapter 3 Multiple Identities, Britishness, and Anglo-Canadianism ……….… 109 Chapter 4 Religion and War in Anglo-Canadian Identity Formation..…..……. 139 Chapter 5 The celebrated rite-de-passage at Oxford University …….…...…… 171 Chapter 6 The courtship and apprenticeship of non-Wasp ethnic groups….….. 202 Chapter 7 The “Canadian flag” debate of 1964-65………………………..…… 243 Chapter 8 Unification of the Canadian armed forces in 1966-68……..….……. 291 Conclusions: Diversity and continuity……..…………………………….…….. 335 Bibliography …………………………………………………………….………347 Index……………………………………………………………………………...384 1 For Helena-Maria, Crispin, and Philippa 2 Abstract The confrontation with Britishness in Canada in the mid-1960s is being revisited by scholars as a turning point in how the Canadian state was imagined and constructed. During what the present thesis calls the “crisis of Britishness” from 1964 to 1968, the British character of Canada was redefined and Britishness portrayed as something foreign or “other.” This post-British conception of Canada has been buttressed by historians depicting the British connection as a colonial hangover, an externally-derived, narrowly ethnic, nostalgic, or retardant force. However, Britishness, as a unique amalgam of hybrid identities in the Canadian context, in fact took on new and multiple meanings.
    [Show full text]