Which one would you most want as leader, from the perspective of the country as a whole?

Agreed! Particularly when the country can vote in a Johnson and get back a Truss/Sunak two years later (none good but very different economic views)

Their underlying principle as I see it is that the state shouldn’t tell people how to get on with their lives, which meshes with evolving attitudes to feminism/gay rights etc.

Of course many(Theresa May included) don’t always practise what they preach, and this def doesn’t extend to immigration.

That’s interesting I didn’t know that!

I agree that the coherence of liberal conservatism as an ideology is very different from the current makeup of the Tory party which is profoundly illiberal.

But (especially among the one nation wing) I see a genuine liberal bent for many. See eg Theresa May’s support for gender recognition reform.

Thank you! It’s a fun discussion you’ve started

On (their understanding of) the freedom of the individual.

That often leads liberal conservatives to right wing economic policies (deregulation, opposing redistribution), but often social liberalism too (eg the conservatives were the party that legalised gay marriage)

In the UK being a conservative is about wanting to slow down change (to conserve). That means respecting tradition (the monarchy, aristocracy, religion etc), property rights and individual freedoms. It’s a very broad church, and many conservatives are liberals in the sense of basing their politics…

Perhaps if I were around Americans more often I’d take the same approach to the word as you do!

State or more redistribution, without these underlying ideas being particularly present. And so creating confusions like this, even when (to me) a lot of US conservatism seems to have liberal foundations. Is there something I’m missing about the US case here?

Regards, a British liberal!

Of course many versions lean further to the left and justify a bigger state on the basis of creating the conditions for individuals to exercise freedom (or by allowing competing principles like equality to compete with liberty).

In the US it just seems to mean wanting more redistribution/a bigger…

Of moral claims.

That’s why I’m guessing people refer to Macron as one, after right wing versions like neo-liberalism. In Britain it refers to a lot of relatively centrist views that like to talk about rights and people being able to get on with their lives without the state telling them what to do

Tbh I feel like much of the confusion comes from the US (mistakenly) departing from ‘liberal’’s traditional meaning.

In Europe it’s an important word bc of a long running tradition involving concepts like the dignity and autonomy of the individual, and that the individual should be the basis…

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What’s gone wrong with Substack I’m curious?

I’m wondering why it had to be so widespread. I worry this simply means most departments are gonna be in limbo for some months as new ministers settle in.