Talk:Noel Skelton

Constructive Conservatism
The current version of the page asserts that Constructive Conservatism (1924) "had a lasting influence, particularly among younger Tory MPs". Did it? I would suggest not, and that although this is an easy mistake to make, it's easy to demonstrate that this claim is wrong.

1. Who were these "younger Tory MPs"? Many of them were the "young men" who had returned from the trenches and to Parliament in the 1922 general election. Yet many had been elected for the first time in 1910 and 1911. Given that 1924 was _not_ the first time that they were expressing ideas along the lines that Skelton had advocated, it would seem to suggest that they had actually held these views much earlier.

2. The views set out in Constructive Conservatism in 1924 (and in Spectator in summer 1923) had strong consistencies with earlier statements of policy, and even pre-war statements. Note, for example, the reports of the Unionist Social Reform Committee, 1911 - 1917, or contributions to the Morning Post following defeat in 1906.

3. The kind of "property-owning democracy" that Skelton advocated was very different to that subsequently advocated by Eden etc. He was actually referring to industrial co-partnership and advocated strong industrial harmony, something that had been advocated by Edward Wood in 1914 in The Great Opportunity and on numerous occassions by Lord Salisbury.

So it would be more accurate to see Constructive Conservatism as a SYMPTOM of a longstanding debate of Conservative ideas.

I could change the Wikipedia entry, but I'm new to all this. I post here first in case it's good manners to suggest a change and get feedback before you alter anything.

Nick Lee 14:16, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Property-Owning Democracy
Also: "His thinking on property ownership as the fundamental basis of modern conservatism proved particularly attractive, and Anthony Eden personally revived the phrase as a political slogan at the 1946 Conservative Party conference."

This is just plain inaccurate. Anyone who has even made a cursory read of Constructive Conservatism would be aware that the idea of "property ownership" as advocated was not "revived" by Eden but fundamentally reshaped. So his legacy in this respect is vastly overstated.

I'm supported in this view by Skelton's biographer in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Nick Lee 14:12, 24 March 2007 (UTC)