The Ideology
I have heard it said on a number of occasions that the Conservative ideology is simply anti-change. They are opposed to any change that may seem radical by the standards of the day. All you have to do is look at the facts: they are against reform of the House of Lords; they are against closer ties with Europe, surely the way of the future; they are against Scottish and Welsh devolution. The only way for a country to progress is to try out and introduce new ideas: if a party is against change, surely under this party the country will stagnate?
This is not true.
The Conservative party is not opposed to change. It is opposed to ill thought through change, and to change for the wrong reasons. I mean, the UK was under Conservative government for 18 glorious years. During that time, sure, the country had its problems, two recessions, the miners' strikes, etcetera, but surely anyone can see that the country was not stagnating during this time. It was always changing, adapting, to the new needs of its citizens and the new international pressures it was put under.
The Tories changed a lot. They broke Britain free from the power of the trade unions, a problem France and Germany still struggle with today. They brought Britain from a high-inflation, high-unemployment economy to a low-inflation, low-unemployment one. There were problems. No-one denies that. The poll tax is a case in point, so is the ERM. Clearly these were massive failures. But at least we tried them - and at least we had the sense to recognise, when they started to go wrong, that we should pull out. This willingness to try out new initiatives is to be rewarded in any government.
The reason why the Tories are against much of Labour's new initiatives is, quite simply, because they can foresee the problems that they might create. Scottish and Welsh devolution would be bad for Scotland and Wales, since Westminster pays more into these provinces than it takes out. Closer ties with Europe result in a loss of sovereignty, and a loss of ability to manage our own affairs. Germany has shown this already, with its inability to do anything about its slowing economy, due to the powers removed from it by the euro. The list goes on and on.
So the ideology is change, but change for the right reasons - not simply charging ahead with anything new and exciting.