Traditions of the future
By Ofir Haivry, Artillery Row:
The first UK National Conservatism conference starts in London on Monday. It will seek to present a vision for the future of conservatism that is rooted in tradition. Such an appeal to traditional values, history and national identity is sometimes accused of tending towards atavism and xenophobia — accusations aired not only by the usual Guardian-reading crowd, but even by some who define themselves as conservatives.
In fact, the Edmund Burke Foundation (which organises the National Conservative Conferences) was founded by a diverse group of conservatives from America, Europe and beyond. It is explicitly committed to the rule of law and democratic national governments, as can be seen in our statement of principles.
Why is our effort to reemphasise the role of the Anglo-American tradition of politics and law necessary? Mainly it is because of increasing attempts to locate the roots of representative government, rights and the rule of law in the ideas of the liberal Enlightenment and the French revolution.
Anti-historical narratives are now fed to students at universities
For some decades, the Anglo-American tradition has been subjected to an attempt at “retro-fitting” into liberal Enlightenment principles. That is, some are claiming that the American and British constitutions were essentially born out of liberal enlightenment principles and that, previous to these, there wasn’t very much of value. Anti-historical narratives are now fed to students at universities and law schools, to the point that most of them believe the Anglo-American tradition means mainly Locke and Jefferson — the very people who sought its replacement with Revolutionary principles.
With such an outlook, traditional constitutional elements like the supremacy of Parliament (or, in the US, the electoral college) and the common law, become window-dressing that might be thrown out at a convenient occasion. However, even a cursory look at the history of the common law and the English (later British) constitution shows that their essential roots are in tradition of the Judeo-Christian heritage.
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