The conservative party and the labour party are thought to have derived from completely opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. The conservative party is associated with conservatism and the labour party with socialism mainly because of it’s attachment to the working class. This ‘difference’ is why many believe that a two party system still exists in the UK. Although it is believed that conservatives fear change as it causes instability therefore damages society, hence to ensure stability ‘the purpose of sound men must be to keep a country recognisably the same’ (Peregrine Worsthorne, Sunday Telegraph - cited by Ted Honderich, Conservatism: Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair? 1st March 2005, chapter1 page 7 ) However in practice the conservative party has shown itself to be very pragmatic for example the legalisation of gay marriage in the UK under the cons/lib coalition government in 2013 ,’changing in order to conserve’ (Burke Edmund Burke on fiscal conservatism, Reflections on the Revolution in France [1790] (London: Penguin Classics, 1986), pp. 207-8) Thatchers government also distanced itself from the ideology mainly through her ideas of a minimal state: ‘a moral society is not a society where the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State.’(From a speech to the Zurich Economic Society “The New Renaissance”, delivered …show more content…
The Labour and conservative manifestos of 1997 as shown in the ‘British political parties today’ table (31.32.33) showed little difference between the two parties: economically there was an ‘acceptance that modern economy must be based upon capitalist criteria, marker practices and consumer choice’ (Page 34) ‘There was also an acceptance that the state should retain vital responsibility for welfare’ Similarities were endless, again blurring the distinction between the two