The great centre right parties on the European continent that alternated with the socialists in government 1945-2000 have largely been marginalised, replaced by populist parties. The US Republican party has been taken over by the Maga movement, with its populist and America first policies. In the UK the Conservative party lost massive support for wrong turnings on migration, public spending and taxation. The new Conservative party has shown how it has changed as it competes with three populist challengers, Reform, Restore and Advance.
In Europe winning populist parties have often themselves lost office when they fail to control borders and tame the state. In Italy Forza, Five Star and Lega have all risen and disappointed. Populists are often part right, part socialist. They offer the popular soundbites, shift with the latest poll and find it is all more difficult than they thought if they get to taste power.
This book asks Is President Trump conservative? Aren’t populist parties living a contradiction with their mixed philosophies? What is true Conservatism? The author explains how a blend of principles and pragmatism underpin conservatism. Conservatives believe in freedom, free enterprise and the rule of law. With the right mix government can allow prosperity and freedom to flourish whilst helping those in need and controlling the borders of a democratic nation.
John Redwood writes a daily blog www.johnredwoodsdiary.com, has published widely on economics and politics, has chaired industrial companies, is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls College Oxford, a Chartered fellow of CISI, and is a member of the House of Lords. He has been an MP, Chief Policy Adviser to Margaret Thatcher and a cabinet Minister.
May 30, 2026
A blend of principals and pragmatism underpin conservatism what they should but ever since John ERM Major was foolishly appointed Chancellor by Thatcher we have seen very little of this indeed. The only pragmatism we have seen has been let us say things in the manifesto that will get us elected then do the reverse once elected they got away with this in four elections.
“In the UK the Conservative party lost massive support for wrong turnings on migration, public spending and taxation”.
Entirely deliberate, let’s kick our voters in the teeth wrong turning!
“The new Conservative party has shown how it has changed as it competes with three populist challengers, Reform, Restore and Advance.” Well perhaps but why should we trust them next time? The Tory MPs Kemi leads are still heavily pro EU, pro the Net Zero vandalism, pro large government and mass immigration. May’s net zero lunacy was nodded through without even a vote. Many of them cut of Liz Truss at the knees after a few days.
(Voting advice at a time of by elections removed Ed)
You should add to your blurb. “John Redwood has been proved consistently Right for well over 40 years. Alas the essentially LIbDim Tory party has rarely taken his wise advice – even preferring to retain no chance John Major even after his all his gross incompetence and the ERM and EU fiascos were visible to all.
May 30, 2026
@Lifelogic – “pro EU, pro the Net Zero vandalism, pro large government and mass immigration.” doesn’t that sum up the whole of Parliament and is at the root of everything that is misplaced.
Even if the direction was needed, not one of them has suggested were the money £trillions should come from. Even more bizarrely they cancelled every and all means of creating said ‘money’
May 30, 2026
Sometimes the voters’ judgement about whom to vote for and why is the main fault. Many complain and don’t vote at all, carelessly regarding all politicians as being as bad as each other.
Governments themselves are composed of a bunch of individuals who have differing and frequently conflicting views, motivated by a myriad of disparate dynamics.
Somewhere mixed within that soup of complex ingredients is something that may suit the population long enough before they dislike it intently and would prefer to spit it out. Some are near starving, but will they tolerate swallowing Labour slop for another three years?
May 30, 2026
It is quite understandable many people do not vote. This as so many safe seats that almost never change hands. I have voted Tory all my life other than Major’s second election when I voted UKIP. Only when I voted at Cambridge did I ever get a Tory MP after that in Bloomsbury, Camden, Swiss Cottage, Highgate it was all Labour (Glenda Jackson mainly who was very helpful on the one occasion I needed her to write a letter to help get some action). So why bother if living in such constituencies? Even if you get your partly of choice not very much chance the MPs or Government will even try deliver as promised anyway.
I suppose I also voted for Boris as Mayor and he was elected but then he pushed lunacies like road blocking/constricting, congestion taxes and mad expensive but never built garden bridges. The only real democracy is direct democracy.
May 30, 2026
@LL. I too found Glenda Jackson very helpful, the one time I wrote to her as a constituent.
May 30, 2026
@Bloke – in practice there is nothing any party can say to win an election. They can only ensure they will loose it.
Political beliefs have become religious cults, people don’t as a rule change religions. When parties desert their core vote, effectively they disenfranchise them, so generally stay well away as the alternate crowd would be like voting for the ‘devil’.
Historically only 6% ever actually move from one camp to another. Labour last time around with just 20.5% of electorate support didn’t increase their vote. At the GE in 2019 Labour was on 10,269,051 – then in 2024 Labour was at 9,708,716. Labour lost votes. Exposing the mistakes you make when you desert so many of your supporters. then to present the future as being with those that owned the collective responsibility for that catastrophic failure, means things ‘ain’t’ going to change much. A big much needed refresh would have painted a different picture.
The feeling and going against all historical trends is that people will either abstain or look for maximum disruption. Those that call themselves the established, with egos beyond their proven abilities might just getting the kicking they deserve, so as we can rebuild with the people and the nation in mind. This is were the arrogance of the 5 years term kicks the people of this great nation in the teeth.
May 31, 2026
Yes Ian B. Allowing the present Labour muddle to last for another three years is like seeing Parliament on fire and watching it burn itself to the ground into a cinder, instead of sending in the Fire Brigade as soon as the signs of smoke and flame were detected.
May 31, 2026
@Bloke – correct, well said
May 30, 2026
Not alas on Kindle yet or free on Kindle Unlimited yet – though several of his books are.
Ah I have worked out who the chap with round glasses on the front is Friedrich Merz.
Also on the front is Kemi but is Kemi really sound and serious on immigration, net zero, economics, deregulation, benefits, red tape, HS2, exposing the Covid “Vaccine” disasters, giving Lucy Letby he retrial for he obviously unsafe convictions… how are we to know given the parties history of “say one thing to get elected then do the reverse in office” – we will never find out I suspect. Even if she is sound and she get elected will her largely Libdem MPs allow her to deliver.
The two best PMs we have had in my lifetime were both female Thatcher and ex LibDemTruss. Both were removed by half witted left wing “conservative” MPs far too rapidly. With disastrous results for the party both times. Thatcher in effect won four election the last one because voters were quite wrongly conned into thinking John Major was her chosen man and would continue her agenda.
Reply Kemi’s new policy direction is supported by the MPs and will form their platform for the next election. The 6 figures on the cover are explained inside the cover!
I chose 3 leaders in office and 3 challengers, who are also 3 populists and 3 traditional Conservative parties , and 3 women and 3 men. Countries are UK, US, Germany, France, Italy as the big 5 each side of Atlantic. Badenoch,Farage, Trump, Merz, Melonie, Le Pen
May 30, 2026
Reply to reply:
“Kemi’s new policy direction is supported by the MPs”
But not, I suspect by the Party Grandees and “Old Guard” LibCONs who infest the House of Frauds …. present company excepted, of course.
Reply Why be abusive and so badly informed? I have not heard any criticism of Kemi from Conservative peers and plenty of support for the work done on Chagos, oil and gas, benefit reform, spending and tax cuts, Mandelson etc.
May 30, 2026
reply to reply….Why are Donna’s creative writing words held to be abusive?
Surely infestation ‘the invasion and occupation of a specific area ‘ is pretty accurate.
House of Lords (Frauds) ought to be unbiased politically – that’s a laugh.
May 30, 2026
I read, watch and listen widely. I don’t consider my comment to be abusive – the abuse heaped on those, like me, who support a “populist party” because the Not-a-Conservative-Party CONNED them, is far, far greater.
Reply Then name the Conservative peers who attack the Conservative leader that you talked about. How about the good work of Toby Young on free speech, Jon Moynihan on smaller state and growth, Peter Lilley on net zero, Lucy Neville Rolfe on lower taxes, Colin Moynihan on using our own oil and gas etc all Conservative peers.
May 30, 2026
To reply indeed the people you list are all good sound people alas all too few of them. Why is Ann Widecombe not in the Lords yes Net Zero May is with Mandleson, Blunket, Lord Greensill Cameron, Archer, Adonis, Hermer, 95% of the religious lot…
Reply Archer retired from the Lords.Mandelson has now resigned.
May 30, 2026
Alas the excellent Lord Matt Ridley has gone too.
May 30, 2026
Thanks for the reply. But how do we know her MPs will support her if she ever did win a majority they all Kemi and Coutinho included (I suspect) supported May’s net zero and Boris/Sunak’s insane £600 billion doing net harm with Covid “vaccine”. I have not heard Kemi demanding release of the medical statistics broken down by Covid Vaccine Status (they are resisting FOI request) so we can all see the extend of the damage done (or confirming the absurdly claimed millions of lives saved?)
Also in May 2023, as Business and Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch under Sunak effectively dropped the “sunset” clause of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. Instead of automatically abolishing nearly 4,000 pieces of EU law by the end of 2023, she replaced the sweeping cull with a specific list of around 600 laws to be scrapped. The remainder were transitioned into “assimilated law”.
May 30, 2026
Sounds like an interesting read.
Though some might disagree that “The US Republican party has been taken over by the Maga movement, with its populist and America first policies”. It seems to me that Maga has been taken over by the Republican Party.
May 30, 2026
The problem for the conservative voter is that the Conservative party was not conservative by demonstration and fine new words guarantee nothing.
May 30, 2026
From your description I think your book will simply demonstrate how far the Not-a-Conservative-Party disassociated itself from the principles you claim: freedom, free enterprise and the rule of law.
You say it has shown it has changed, but how? I don’t see any evidence of that. All I hear are loud protestations that if they were re-elected they’d do things differently this time, but talk is not evidence and as we know from 14 years experience, it is very cheap. Badenoch as a Minister, was closely associated with policies which fundamentally broke the 2019 Manifesto “promises” as were others in her shadow cabinet.
Unfortunately – tragically – decades of mass immigration has fundamentally changed this country and there is no longer a cohesive society where many sensible adults were prepared to weigh up the interests of the whole Nation when they voted, whilst accepting that they personally may not benefit.
Now we have a lot of ghettoised “communities” which have nothing in common with each other and in some cases, actively hate and exploit other ones (including the native white population) whilst the Governing Class at best look the other way and at worst encourage it.
The Demos, which is necessary for Democracy to properly function, no longer exists. So-called Populist Parties are a symptom of that and, like the fractured societies the Establishment Parties deliberately created, they won’t be going away any time soon.
Reply If you wish to comment on my book/ views you should read it first. Your criticism misses the mark
May 30, 2026
I thought we were having a discussion. Silly me.
May 30, 2026
You are correct Donna. Some people will remain in denial until they die.
May 30, 2026
I will read it but as not on kindle (yet?) I will have to await delivery. Perhaps I will dig out my How to Be a Conservative Book by Roger Scruton or read you “75 Brexit Benefits” book or you one on the £trillions wasted doing doing net harms with the war on plant food. You need to do one on the £600bn that Boris and Sunak and our brilliant “experts” did vast net harms during Covid “vaccines” and lockdowns.
May 30, 2026
Donna, I must say that I find myself in accord with your sentiments, those expressed and those carefully alluded to.
Democracy itself is leaving us helpless, each of us from left, from right, from centre, from the extremes, all unhappy, frustrated, maddened by an unresponsive ‘elite’ which refuses to acknowledge let alone openly and honestly discuss alarming issues in the news and in our localities. New parties are grappling with the problems, their activists, coming with independent thoughts, philosophies, and experiences are far from uniform and marshalled in their views and solutions.
I think of the allegory of a sunny seaside, of people and children at play on the beach, of industrious fishermen mending nets and preparing their boats, of studious boffins counting and categorising the fish, fauna and flora of the waters and adjacent habitats. All are more or less happy in their activities and contented in the moment, accepting the tribulations and inconveniences of many little disagreeable vicissitudes of the day.
Raising eyes to the horizon there are little dark dots, and, even more distant, a dark line of more than a swell in the body of the ocean, . . . . . . . and we thought that a D-day beachhead or Banda Aceh tsunami was an unimaginable horror . . . .
May 30, 2026
A very good and insightful number of comments. Most of us here are likely to find Lord Redwood’s book a confirming read of being a Conservative by principles. However, it may well describe just how far the senior ranks in the Party strayed from those principles.
Unfortunately one person’s ‘discussion’ is another’s ‘criticism’.
May 30, 2026
Now that is a massive understatement.
There was a distinct lack of proper parliamentary accountability, with Gove accumulating and exercising more power than the PM. The legislation towards the end of that parliament was more oppressive and vindictive than should have ever been called tory policy – certainly the tories set a very low bar for the labour party to achieve in terms of realistic policies for the good of all.
The tories weren’t just broken, it felt they had turned against the people of the UK.
As always and it seems like forever, it’s always those of a left leaning that bring out the worst in government, and the tory left is no exception.
Until we get a full explanation and apologies from the tory party on why they went so bad, and the tory left are fully purged, I won’t become a tory supporter again.
May 30, 2026
Having said that above, I can still admire the work Kemi is doing – she has a long way to go yet though.
May 30, 2026
Steve, with you on both your comments +++++
May 30, 2026
“populist” is a strange slur in a democracy, smacks of an elite looking down on ordinary people.
been openly racially discriminated against as a white guy a few times this week, if I extrapolate out this must be happening all the time, and not a whisper in the main stream commentariat about it…
May 30, 2026
Their inheritance was very bad. They have made it very, very much worse.
May 30, 2026
“What is true Conservatism?” morphing into the Liberal Democrats, chasing Socialism, wanting a Nanny State, Control & Command, wanting to be a ‘ruling’ Party isn’t Conservatism.
Unfortunately John, from my perspective, and those that I know that take an interest, looking from the outside in I don’t see a ‘New Conservative Party’. I see the same old tired crowd that had collective responsibility for the disaster the party became, still ruled by Liberal Democrats, still being Liberal Democrat. I don’t see a hands off, defender of democracy, defender of the UK, freedom loving, let the people that can do, do party. Maybe you are to close, to absorbed into the ‘Metro Bubble’ to see the state of play from a Nationwide perspective. But, all I see is old tired and failed. To late this time around but a complete refresh lead by the grass roots was all that was needed after the abject failure that was created. What CCHQ, the LibDem CCHQ thought of experience was the wrong type of experience.
Yes what you call populist might be just as defunct in practice, but they are not those that think that just because of an inherited name they have a populist right to ‘rule’. After all the Liberal Democrats even historically are not even the Liberal party, they are a breakaway faction of Socialist Labour(Labour incarnated) an inherited different mind set. Now the have infested the Tories.
Its not going to happen, but what is need is a total clear out of the UK Parliament and a fresh start. So-called populist are in all probability not the ultimate answer, but given the alternatives they are the best stepping stone we have.
Reply We had a huge clear out of the Commons leading to a big set of changes in the Lords in 2024. What we need is to change governments next time to a new team who does know how to grow the economy and restrain the state
May 30, 2026
The state need rather more than just restraint it need to be cut in half and to spend the money efficiently on things of positive value for the public for a change.
May 31, 2026
@Lifelogic – that sounds like the philosophy of ‘Budgeting’ – controlling expenditure
May 30, 2026
“In the UK the Conservative party lost massive support for wrong turnings on migration, public spending and taxation. The new Conservative party has shown how it has changed as it competes with three populist challengers, Reform, Restore and Advance.”
Also the wrong turning on Net Zero which is sabotaging our energy and destroying our industry and national security. I will not believe there exists a “new Conservative Party” until I see the resignations for policy changes from existing members such as Baroness May of Maidenhead, Boris Johnson and many others who support Net Zero, mass immigration/multiculturism and EU membership. There are many other parties they can join which are far more in line with their views including the Green Party.
May 30, 2026
“The great centre right parties on the European continent” seems a contradiction. In practice they appear to demonstrate being either equal or to the left of the UK Socialist Labour Party. They all want to control and command.
AI view of Conservatism
Focuses on free markets, limited government intervention, low taxation, and individual financial responsibility.
A belief that traditions, laws, and institutions have endured because they serve a necessary purpose. Conservatives prefer proven historical experience over untested, abstract ideals.
Emphasis on the importance of foundational structures like the family, the church, and the nation-state in maintaining moral order and social cohesion.
The view that society is an interconnected living organism rather than a collection of isolated individuals; thus, abrupt disruptions can cause societal harm.
Emphasises duty, social harmony, and the state’s responsibility to protect the vulnerable while maintaining the social hierarchy.
I am surprised(or am I) that the concept of Conservatism doesn’t include the need for democracy, freedon or individual responsibility – so I am well out of step
May 30, 2026
128 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK yesterday 29th May 2026 …..