Modern History Sourcebook:
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965): Conservative Party Principles, 1946
Churchill made this speech to the Conservative Party Conference in 1946, after he
had been replaced at British Prime minister by the Clement Atlee, whose Labour government
was in the process of creating the modern British welfare state. Churchill rejects
socialism, but not that he does not adopt a radical free market approach either.I do not believe in looking about for some panacea or cure-all on which we should stake
our credit and fortunes trying to sell it like a patent medicine to all and sundry. It is
easy to win applause by talking in an airy way about great new departures in policy,
especially if all detailed proposals are avoided. We ought not to seek after some rigid,
symmetrical form of doctrine, such as delights the minds of Socialists and Communists. Our
own feelings and the British temperament are quite different. So are our aims. We seek a
free and varied society, where there is room for many kinds of men and women to lead
happy, honourable and useful lives. We are fundamentally opposed to all systems of rigid
uniformity in our national life and we have grown great as a nation by indulging
tolerance, rather than logic.It certainly would be an error of the first order for us to plunge out into a programme
of promises and bribes in the hopes of winning the public favour. But if you say to me:
"What account are we to give of the policy of the Conservative Party? What are we to
say of our theme and our cause and of the faith that is in us?" That is a question to
which immediate answer can always be given.Our main objectives are: To uphold the Christian religion and resist all attacks upon
it. To defend our Monarchical and Parliamentary Constitution. To provide adequate security
against external aggression and safety for our seaborne trade. To uphold law and order,
and impartial justice administered by Courts free from interference or pressure on the
part of the executive. To regain a sound finance and strict supervision of national income
and expenditure. To defend and develop our Empire trade, without which Great Britain would
perish. To promote all measures to improve the health and social conditions of the people.
To support as a general rule free enterprise and initiative against State trading and
nationalisation of industries.To this I will add some further conceptions. We oppose the establishment of a Socialist
State, controlling the means of production, distribution and exchange. We are asked,
"What is your alternative?" Our Conservative aim is to build a property-owning
democracy, both independent and interdependent. In this I include profit-sharing schemes
in suitable industries and intimate consultation between employers and wage-earners. In
fact we seek so far as possible to make the status of the wage-earner that of a partner
rather than of an irresponsible employee. It is in the interest of the wage-earner to have
many other alternatives open to him than service under one all-powerful employer called
the State. He will be in a better position to bargain collectively and production will be
more abundant; there will be more for all and more freedom for all when the wage-earner is
able, in the large majority of cases, to choose and change his work, and to deal with a
private employer who, like himself, is subject to the ordinary pressures of life and, like
himself, is dependent upon his personal thrift, ingenuity and good-housekeeping. In this
way alone can the traditional virtues of the British character be preserved. We do not
wish the people of this ancient island reduced to a mass of State-directed proletarians,
thrown hither and thither, housed here and there, by an aristocracy of privileged
officials or privileged Party, sectarian or Trade Union bosses. We are opposed to the
tyranny and victimisation of the closed shop [note: a unionized workplace where all
workers must join the union]. Our ideal is the consenting union of millions of free,
independent families and homes to gain their livelihood and to serve true British glory
and world peace.Freedom of enterprise and freedom of service are not possible without elaborate systems
of safeguards against failure, accident or misfortune. We do not seek to pull down
improvidently the structures of society, but to erect balustrades upon the stairway of
life, which will prevent helpless or foolish people from falling into the abyss. Both the
Conservative and Liberal Parties have made notable contributions to secure minimum
standards of life and labour. I too have borne my part in this. It is 38 years ago since 1
introduced the first Unemployment Insurance Scheme, and 22 years ago since, as
Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, I shaped and carried the Widows' Pensions and
reduction of the Old Age Pensions [note: the British version of the American
"social security"] from 70 to 65. We are now moving forward into another
vast scheme of national insurance, which arose, even in the stress of war, from a
Parliament with a great Conservative majority. It is an essential principle of
Conservative, Unionist, and Tory policy-call it what you will-to defend the general public
against abuses by monopolies and against restraints on trade and enterprise, whether these
evils come from private corporations, from the mischievous plans of doctrinaire
Governments, or from the incompetence and arbitrariness of departments of State. Finally,
we declare ourselves the unsleeping opponents of all class, all official or all Party
privilege, which denies the genius of our island race, whose sparks fly upwards
unceasingly from the whole people, its rightful career, reward and pre-eminence alike in
peace and war.How then do we draw the lines of political battle? The British race is not actuated
mainly by the hope of material gain. Otherwise we should long ago have sunk in the ocean
of the past. It is stirred on almost all occasions by sentiment and instinct, rather than
by programmes or worldly calculation. When this new Parliament first met, all the
Socialist Members stood up and sang "The Red Flag" in their triumph. Peering
ahead through the mists and mysteries of the future so far as I can; I see the division at
the next election will be between those who wholeheartedly sing "The Red Flag"
and those who rejoice to sing "The Land of Hope and Glory." There is the noble
hymn which will rally the wise, the soberminded and the good to the salvation of our
native land.
Source:From Winston S. Churchill, "Speech to Conservative Party Conference, October 5,
1946,"
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