Tories encouraged to stress faith and values
-26/07/05
The Conservative Party was yesterday encouraged to return to what one of its prominent members described as the core values of “faith, flag and family” in order to win back flagging public support.
In a move that may alarm those wary of the entwining of religion and party politics, former Tory minister Edward Leigh said that the party should not be afraid to proclaim its support for “traditional Christian values.”
In what appeared to be a conscious echo of US President George Bush’s electoral appeal to the “faith vote”, he declared that Conservatives should combine religious ethics with patriotic appeal.
The comments, coming in a pamphlet published by the recently-formed Cornerstone Group of socially conservative Tory MPs, is being seen as a deliberate riposte to “modernisers” in the party.
Mr Leigh, who is now chairman of the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said that an appeal to “traditional conservative values” proved successful in the USA and would resonate with voters in Britain as well.
However, many commentators are sceptical about the comparison, pointing out that while over 80 per cent of the US population identify themselves as Christian, and many align themselves with the ‘religious right’, Britain is a far more secular and socially liberal society.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Tory grandee and ex-Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, a prominent Catholic, took a very different view to Mr Leigh.
Known to be an opponent of an ideological right-wing agenda, whether religiously related or otherwise, Mr Patten also criticized the more socially progressive conservatism of Christian Democracy – a label he has had applied to him by the Daily Telegraph.
“I’m critical of the attempts to develop Catholic social policy over the last century,” he told Stephen Moss. “It is difficult to cross the bridge between the New Testament and policy wonkery. But I am a Christian, I believe in the social market and I think we do tend to forget the difference between value and price, not just in the Conservative Party but across the spectrum in this country.”
At the UK general election in May 2005 the theological think-tank Ekklesia encouraged Christians to stand up for justice, peace, ecology and the interests of marginalised groups in the political process. But its election statement, Subverting the Manifestos, also warned about the manipulation of religion for ideological purposes. It said that the Gospel message itself criticized the buttressing of religion by secular power and vice versa.
Tories encouraged to stress faith and values
-26/07/05
The Conservative Party was yesterday encouraged to return to what one of its prominent members described as the core values of “faith, flag and family” in order to win back flagging public support.
In a move that may alarm those wary of the entwining of religion and party politics, former Tory minister Edward Leigh said that the party should not be afraid to proclaim its support for “traditional Christian values.”
In what appeared to be a conscious echo of US President George Bush’s electoral appeal to the “faith vote”, he declared that Conservatives should combine religious ethics with patriotic appeal.
The comments, coming in a pamphlet published by the recently-formed Cornerstone Group of socially conservative Tory MPs, is being seen as a deliberate riposte to “modernisers” in the party.
Mr Leigh, who is now chairman of the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said that an appeal to “traditional conservative values” proved successful in the USA and would resonate with voters in Britain as well.
However, many commentators are sceptical about the comparison, pointing out that while over 80 per cent of the US population identify themselves as Christian, and many align themselves with the ‘religious right’, Britain is a far more secular and socially liberal society.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Tory grandee and ex-Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, a prominent Catholic, took a very different view to Mr Leigh.
Known to be an opponent of an ideological right-wing agenda, whether religiously related or otherwise, Mr Patten also criticized the more socially progressive conservatism of Christian Democracy – a label he has had applied to him by the Daily Telegraph.
“I’m critical of the attempts to develop Catholic social policy over the last century,” he told Stephen Moss. “It is difficult to cross the bridge between the New Testament and policy wonkery. But I am a Christian, I believe in the social market and I think we do tend to forget the difference between value and price, not just in the Conservative Party but across the spectrum in this country.”
At the UK general election in May 2005 the theological think-tank Ekklesia encouraged Christians to stand up for justice, peace, ecology and the interests of marginalised groups in the political process. But its election statement, Subverting the Manifestos, also warned about the manipulation of religion for ideological purposes. It said that the Gospel message itself criticized the buttressing of religion by secular power and vice versa.