William Hague

Will we soon see the end of conservatism as we know it?

Edmund Fawcett fears that the liberal democratic ideal is now fatally threatened by the rise of the new hard right

(Getty Images) 
issue 19 December 2020

For some years I chaired the international alliance of centre right and conservative parties, the International Democrat Union. It is an organisation that illustrates the difficulty of defining and categorising right-wing political movements: it is called ‘democrat’, but includes the American Republicans, boasts the Australian Liberals among its avowedly conservative members and includes Christian Democrats, Independence parties, National parties, People’s parties and even one United Workers Party.

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