9
young conservative MP’s in the parliament, nicknamed the YMCA, which argued for the
need for a progressive and democratic reform within the - party.
19
It is not hard to see why such a conservative appeal to democracy, which
originated with Benjamin Disraeli,
20
created strong reactions both within and outside the
Tory Party. The Tories of the old-guard found the idea of democracy contemptible and
saw no reason to join force. On the other side of the political map, the idea of Tory
Democracy was seen as a “fraud and sham” and in fact a contradiction in terms: “like
talking of a white-black man.”
21
Karl Marx, with typical irony, called an earlier
manifestation of this movement “feudal socialism” and described it as “half lamentation,
half lampoon.”
22
Nonetheless, I believe that an understanding of the discursive matrix in
which ‘property-owning democracy’ emerged requires us to move beyond the ideological
battleground and to engage in a close reading of Skelton’s arguments.
Noel Skelton identified two “special features of the new era:” “Britain is now,
electorally, a complete democracy,” and “the new era is one not merely of democracy,
but of an educated democracy.”
23
These new features fundamentally transformed the
political terrain. The old battles with the Whigs were “fought on a narrow front;”
socialism is a menace that fights “on the broadest front.”
24
Only a renovated
conservative ideology can create a unified front against socialism. “Conservatism is the
real guardian of stability in the community” and, therefore, “it has a special duty
constantly to search out the means by which stability threatened can be saved.”
25
Private
property is essential to stability since possession brings “an increased sense of
responsibility, a wider economic outlook, a practical medium for the expression of moral
and intellectual qualities.”
26
Convention