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· As the 2001 general election emerges, apathy is the likely winner.
· Although economic battles have been fought and won, there are still great issues at stake: social, cultural, moral
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The rise of apathy
Here it comes. The big one. Your chance to decide the destiny of a nation. Your nation. Your destiny. So let's go for it. Let's vote!
On the other hand, let's go down the pub, watch TV, worm the cat or whatever else one might do instead of voting. You wouldn't be alone. Indeed, come Election Day you'll have the chance of joining the greatest non-movement of non-voters in British history. After all why place your cross on the ballot paper when you could be placing your buttocks on the comfy collective sofa of electoral apathy?
The fact is that we don't care. What's more, we don't care that we don't care. From time to time, the odd politician might slip on the sackcloth and slap on the ashes, but it's probably just Tony Blair having a panic attack or some Lib Dem peddling PR. Others blame the politicians themselves for being boring. But this is nothing new. Politicians have always been as boring, if not more so. Back in 1929, Stanley Baldwin fought a whole election under the slogan 'safety first,' the old rabble-rouser. But though he didn't win, people still voted. So perhaps it's not so much the politicians at fault, as the issues.
Does politics matter?
Once upon a time the elemental forces of capitalism and socialism stormed across our skies. All of politics was consumed by the rise of the red tide and the struggles of those who were, in time, to fight it back. But that was then, and this is now. The struggle is over. The storm abated. The political waters untroubled, undemanding, uninteresting. Indeed, they have receded, leaving little to separate the Parties. And, therefore, small cause to choose between them.
But, wait. There is more to life than money and more to public life than economics. The great debates of the twentieth century may have ebbed away, but what lies beneath? First we see the washed up wrecks of the Marxist Left, sometimes gone green with decay. These are the rotten old hulks that pine for the politics of yesterday; it is they who would have us believe that Labour and Conservative are all of a piece. How sad that they cannot see the rich and varied landscape that now lies uncovered around them. Yes, economics is still important, but it must take its place amongst equally important issues of society, morality and culture.
New political battles
This is new ground, but not yet a battleground, at least, not between Labour and Conservatives. Both Parties find themselves in unfamiliar terrain and both must find a way forward. At first, it seemed that New Labour would command the heights as, under Tony Blair's leadership, they rode out to possess the land. But far from finding their way, they have lost it and wander without aim or purpose. They are now to be found in the low places, where the market prevailed over the socialist tide laying down a thick deposit of material wealth. So farewell Frank Field on your moral high ground, your friends are below with Gordon Brown, happy as pigs in silt.
This then is the fate of the Labour Party: To look for a third way and lose it; and then to turn back, not to its own past, but to live off the legacy of the free market foe. There are those jealous Tories who watch from the sidelines wondering how to win back what they see as rightfully theirs. But when we do drive Blair and Brown from their wallowing holes, what will remain? As was ever the case, Labour's answer to every problem is money. Once they tried to make it themselves, now they leave that side of things to the market. But this only means that they have more to squander. It may be that a buoyant economy can hold out against such largesse till such time as we restore order, but is that all we're about? A periodic check on Labour's meretricious generosity?
We need a broader vision, one that we can only behold on that moral high ground. Here is the vantage point from which all true conservatives will see what we are fighting for. It is a thrilling sight that meets our eyes, but one that may seem unfamiliar. Yet this is not an undiscovered country and so, with help from the best of all guidebooks, let me show you the promised land and the treasures that lie within it:
THE INDIVIDUAL
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 134: 13-14)
Conservatives believe in the individual. Not in the destructive selfishness of the consumer culture, but in the unique worth of each and every human being from conception to death. We hold human life to be sacred, and so we stand against the culture of death, of abortion and euthanasia.
THE FAMILY
Marriage should be honored by all. (Hebrews 13: 4)
Conservatives believe in the family. Not in mere biological happenstance, but in unbreakable ties of love and respect that bind man to woman and parent to child. These are ties that bind us all and bear no comparison to the selfish liaisons that cut our children adrift. Far from a private affair, our view of marriage is this: a sacrament in the eyes of God, an honoured institution in the eyes of men.
THE COMMUNITY
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself."(Galatians 5: 13-15)
Conservatives believe in communities. Not in the abstract 'society' of the high-minded, but in the civil society of the good-hearted. It is those that freely choose to suffer with the poor and lonely that practice compassion, not the self-interested advocates of higher taxation. And it is only compassion, flowing from the churches, the charities, the little platoons that can rebuild our communities on the wasteland the state has left behind.
THE NATION
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. (Psalm 86: 9)
Conservatives believe in the nation. Not in last resort of the political scoundrel, but in the sovereign will of free peoples. We don't worship power, we respect authority. Empires, not nations, are built upon the former. Indeed, nations are not built at all, but arise from the values by which we consent to be governed. To deny our nation is to deny all that we hold in common.
HUMANITY
From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind. (Psalm 33: 13).
Conservatives believe in humanity. Not in the prefabrication of power blocks, but in our kinship with men, women and children of every nation. We cherish our own traditions and respect the right of others to follow a different path. But when great evil arises or catastrophe strikes we do not turn away. In peace and in war we defend not just ourselves but civilisation itself.
CREATION
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1: 31)
Conservatives believe in creation. Not in the emptiness of an accidental universe, but in the purpose of the created order. Nature is not ours to despoil, nor animals ours to abuse, nor the very stuff of life ours to twist out of shape. Man is the crown of creation, created to bring forth riches not ruin.
GOD
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10: 27)
Conservatives believe in God. His image is in every one of us. It is he who shaped our families, who gathered our families into communities and our communities into nations. In his sight we stand as one race, the human race, for whom the earth and heavens were made. This is our worldview, one which with patience not prejudice we must proclaim, fulfil and fight for.
Related links
The CCF's exploration of an holistic Christian worldview
William Hague on faith and Conservatism
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