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Conservatism in the United Kingdom |
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British conservatism refers to a political and philosophical tradition in the United Kingdom that emphasizes the preservation of established institutions, [1] the rule of law, gradual societal change, traditionalism [2] British Unionism, [3] loyalism, euroscepticism, [4] a free market economy, [5] individualism [6] and a strong belief in personal responsibility.
Along with liberalism and socialism, it is one of the major political ideologies in the UK.
Entries on the list must have achieved notability after the writing of Reflections on the Revolution in France which is often seen as the starting point of conservatism. [7]
Name | Lifetime | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Edmund Burke | 1729–1797 | Philosopher and statesman, generally understood as part of a liberal tradition, [8] but sometimes associated with a 20th-century movement called modern conservatism | [9] [10] [11] |
Thomas Carlyle | 1795–1881 | Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher | Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle |
Friedrich Hayek | 1899–1992 | Political philosopher and economist | [12] [13] [14] [15] |
Christopher Dawson | 1889–1970 | Catholic historian and independent scholar | [16] |
Michael Joseph Oakeshott | 1901-1990 | Philosopher and political theorist | [17] |
Maurice Cowling | 1926–2005 | British historian | [18] |
Roger Scruton | 1944–2020 | Philosopher, writer, and social critic | [19] |
Niall Ferguson | 1964 - | Scottish–American historian | [20] |
Name | Lifetime | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Peregrine Worsthorne | 1923-2020 | British journalist, writer, and broadcaster | [33] |
Auberon Waugh | 1939-2001 | British journalist and novelist | [34] |
Andrew Neil | 1949 - | Scottish journalist, chairman and broadcaster | [35] |
Peter Hitchens | 1951 - | Conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator | |
Charles Moore | 1956 - | British journalist and editor | |
Allison Pearson | 1960 - | British columnist and author | |
Tony Gallagher | 1963 - | British newspaper journalist and editor | [36] |
Piers Morgan | 1965 - | Broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality | [37] |
Tim Davie | 1967 - | British media executive | [38] |
Julia Hartley-Brewer | 1968 - | British radio presenter, political journalist and newspaper columnist | [39] [40] |
Fraser Nelson | 1973 - | Political journalist and editor | [41] |
Isabel Oakeshott | 1974 or 1975 - | British political journalist | [42] |
Camilla Tominey | 1978 - | Journalist, broadcaster and news presenter | [43] [44] |
Douglas Murray | 1979 - | Author, columnist, editor and political commentator |
Name | Lifetime | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
John Constable | 1776–1837 | English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition | [45] |
Samuel Palmer | 1805–1881 | British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker | [46] |
George Richmond | 1809–1896 | Painter, portraitist and member of The Ancients | [47] |
Wyndham Lewis | 1882–1957 | Painter, art critic and co-founder of the Vorticist movement | [48] |
L. S. Lowry | 1887–1976 | Mancunian painter known for his naïve artworks | [49] [50] |
Francis Bacon | 1909–1992 | Irish-born British figurative painter | [51] [52] |
Gilbert & George | 1942 - 1943 - | Collaborative performance art duo | [53] [54] [55] |
Tracey Emin | 1963 - | English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork | [56] [57] |
Name | Lifetime | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Edward Elgar | 1857-1934 | English composer best known for his orchestral works including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches | [58] |
Bill Wyman | 1936 - | Bassist of The Rolling Stones | [59] |
Errol Brown | 1943-2015 | British-Jamaican singer-songwriter and frontman of the soul band Hot Chocolate | [60] |
Jimmy Page | 1944 - | Guitarist, writer and composer of the renowned hard rock band Led Zeppelin | [61] [62] [63] |
Roger Daltrey | 1944 - | Co-founder and lead singer of the hard rock band The Who | [64] [65] [66] |
John Entwistle | 1944-2002 | Bassist of the hard rock band The Who | [67] |
Eric Clapton | 1945 - | Highly influential guitarist known for his solo work as well as being a member of blues rock band The Yardbirds and psychedelic rock band Cream | [68] |
Bryan Ferry | 1945 - | Vocalist and principal songwriter of the art rock band Roxy Music | [69] |
Roy Wood | 1946 - | Member and co-founder of rock bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard | [70] |
Lynsey de Paul | 1948-2014 | English singer-songwriter and producer | [71] |
Kenney Jones | 1948 - | Drummer of the rock bands Small Faces and Faces | [72] |
Rick Wakeman | 1949 - | Keyboardist of the progressive rock band Yes | [73] |
Mike Oldfield | 1953 - | Prominent progressive rock musician | [74] |
John Lydon | 1956 - | Lead vocalist of the pioneering punk rock band Sex Pistols and frontman of the experimental post-punk band Public Image Ltd | [75] [76] [77] |
Ian Curtis | 1956-1980 | Lead singer and lyricist of the prolific post-punk band Joy Division | [78] [79] [80] [81] |
Mark E. Smith | 1957-2018 | Frontman and lyricist of the pivotal experimental post-punk band The Fall | [82] |
Jon Moss | 1957 - | Drummer of the New Romantic group Culture Club | [83] |
Bruce Dickinson | 1958 - | Frontman of the influential heavy metal band Iron Maiden | [84] |
Morrissey | 1959 - | Frontman and lyricist of the important indie pop band The Smiths | |
Tony Hadley | 1960 - | Lead singer of the New Romantic group Spandau Ballet | [85] |
Gary Barlow | 1971 - | Lead singer of the pop group Take That | [86] |
Kerry Katona | 1980 - | Original member of the pop group Atomic Kitten | [87] |
Name | Lifetime | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Laurence Olivier | 1907-1989 | Director and writer of films including Hamlet and Richard III | [89] |
Peter Glenville | 1913-1996 | Director of films including The Prisoner and Becket | [90] |
Peter Sellers | 1925-1980 | Writer and director of films including The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film and Mr. Topaze | [91] |
Bryan Forbes | 1926-2013 | Director and writer of films including Séance on a Wet Afternoon , King Rat and The Stepford Wives | [92] |
Michael Winner | 1935-2013 | Director of films including Hannibal Brooks and Death Wish | [93] |
Terence Donovan | 1936-1996 | Photographer and director of music videos | [94] |
Tom Stoppard | 1937 - | Writer of films including Brazil , Empire of the Sun and The Russia House | [95] |
Julian Fellowes | 1949 - | Creator and writer of Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age | [96] |
Name | Founded/defunct | Notability | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
The Times | 1785 – | British daily national newspaper based in London that is widely considered to be the newspaper of record [133] along with The Daily Telegraph | [134] [135] |
The Sunday Times | 1821 – | British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category | [136] [137] |
The Spectator | 1828 – | Conservative news magazine first published in July 1828 making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world [138] | |
The Daily Telegraph | 1855 – | British daily conservative broadsheet newspaper founded by Arthur B. Sleigh which is often regarded as the paper of record newspaper of record [139] together with The Times | [140] [141] |
An economic depression after the Napoleonic Wars had led to agrarian riots, and yet Constable, a loyal Tory, chose to portray an abstracted, well-ordered English society that was untouched by the industrial and social changes surrounding him.
Palmer was as conservative in his political and religious beliefs as he was revolutionary in his artistic methods.
According to The Guardian, L. S. Lowry loathed sentiment, was a lifelong conservative and made frankly caustic remarks about the crowds he painted.
A tall, ungainly man in a raincoat who tramped the Salford streets, a rent-collector by day and an artist by night, a lifelong Tory voter and teetotaller, who lived with his mother and never formed relationships with women, Lowry is seen as a social and cultural curiosity: a naive outsider, whose relentlessly repetitive work hints at an intellectual and emotional constriction, an Asperger's-like precocity. He's universally known in this country, but means pretty much nothing anywhere else.
Ian Curtis of Joy Division not only voted Conservative in 1979 but persuaded the Liberal candidate to give him a lift to the polling station in order to do so.
Undoubtedly his most controversial screenplay - and arguably his best - was for Guy Green's The Angry Silence (1960), in which Richard Attenborough is 'sent to Coventry' by his workmates after refusing to join an unofficial strike. Left-wing critics were outraged by the film's portrayal of the unions and its caricatured communists, but Forbes (who politically has always leaned to the right) maintained that he achieved a fair balance by portraying the management as equally crass.
He satirized society from the point of view of aristocratic Toryism in short stories
With regard to political affiliation The Daily Telegraph is a right-wing paper, The Times centre-right, The Financial Times centre-right and liberal, and The Guardian centre-left.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced her candidacy in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper on Sunday evening [...]
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