John McGuirk

It’s not really ok, I accept, to have a good hard slap at the left, as I do directly below this post, and not to acknowledge the disgraceful weakness of the right in this country. For all the meetings and conferences and discussions and fora I’ve attended over the years with the aim of giving an intellectual coherence to the Conservative movement (if such a thing can reasonably be considered to exist) in this country, we’ve never seemed to make much progress.

That’s generally because the discussions revolve around branding, rather than ideas. The right in this country is obsessed with its perceived minority status. Regular readers probably see that personified in me, with my regular cuts at the media and the “bias” that I happen to believe is pretty pervasive in Irish journalism. I speak for most of us in the vast, underground, right wing conspiracy when I say that we feel terribly, terribly maligned and marginalised, and generally find ourselves running away from labels like “conservative” or “right wing” when put under the spotlight. The furtherest we’ll generally go is to call ourselves “centre right”, and even then the use of the phrase tends to set the pulse racing and the perspiration flowing.

The other problem is that we’ve had some limited success. We have, for example, very successfully made the case for lower taxes as a means of attracting investment. But arguments for lower taxes have not been backed up with a broader defence of the entrepreneurial culture, or a case for self-reliance. We’ve fought for the policies on a practical basis, but not the ideas underlying them. The result has been incoherence, and unpopularity. Our defence of low taxes as a purely economic tool is easily twisted into a defence of special treatment the rich, which it never has been. What’s frustrated me at each and every one of these meetings and conferences is the idea that we’ve had success because some of our ideas got implemented under the radar. That’s not success, it’s an admission of defeat.

The other problem has been, and I fear will continue to be, the alienation of social conservatives. Economic rightwingers are content to pursue their agenda on taxes under the radar, and to ingratiate themselves with the left-liberal establishment elite by agreeing that the muck savages in the country are beyond dealing with.

The result has been a political and media establishment that represents roughly half the country. Where’s the explicitly pro-family values party? Where are the people prepared to say that the crusade for economic well-being must be accompanied by a crusade to stop the erosion of the family and of communities? Why have the right ceded concerns about immigration, emigration, and social change to the stalinist left lead by Sinn Fein and Joe Higgins? Why have we abandoned the pro-life movement (amongst the most loyal voters in the country) to people in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who are happy to pay lip service to their issue but who would throw them under a bus to do a deal with Labour?

I’m not particularly socially conservative myself. I tick the boxes on abortion and euthanasia and stem cell research, dissent from the party line on Gay rights, and take a moderate, but concerned approach to the integration and immigration issue, to give three examples. But it seems to me that if those were the issues that concerned me most, there’s no party platform for me to sign up to.

There’s a need to unify the right. But there’s also a need to base the movement on principles, not identities. In that spirit, I’m going to throw out 10 ideas and principles I think should underline the approach of the conservative movement in this country. I’d welcome comments.

1. We believe that wherever possible, Government should leave the individual in charge of his or her own future. This means taking as little money from him as possible, placing as few limits on his activities as possible, and regulating his interaction with others as little as possible.
2. We believe that the goal of the individual should be independence and security for himself and his family. We believe that dependence on the State should be discouraged, as it feeds only despair and lingering hopelessness.
3. We believe that the State should pay for itself as it goes along, borrowing as little as possible. We should not accept, except in extraordinary circumstances, passing the cost of our own social programmes on to our children.
4. We believe that freedom of speech and conscience are absolute. We oppose any attempts to criminalise thought or regulate speech. Free debate is the cornerstone of a free society.
5. We believe that providing all citizens with an equal opportunity to succeed is a primary responsibility of the state. To this end, we support sustained public funding of the Education System, keeping it free of charge to all students.
6. We believe that law and order are essential and must be upheld, but not at the expense of individual liberty. We support a strong, well-resourced police force, but we also believe that the rights of individuals before the courts must be strengthened and protected.
7. We believe that the values of our people should be reflected in our laws. We believe the state should aggressively protect life at all its stages, seek to strengthen the family unit, and protect the cohesion of our society.
8. We believe that whilst faith is a private matter, the work of our Churches – particularly in Education – is a public good.
9. We believe that the membership of  European Union is an absolute good for Ireland, but we do not accept that it must come at any price. We believe Irish independence is sacrosanct, and must always be protected whilst proceeding with further integration.
10. We believe that the artificially created border on our Island serves to divide us in spirit as well as law. We support reunification on the basis of mutual consent, and strive towards the day when it can be achieved.

Poncey and pretentious as these might sound, they are principles that I firmly believe over 60% of the country can unite around. We have not been successful in defending them and promoting them. Outside of the work that I do in my professional capacity, I will be striving with others over the next few months to develop a plan to promote them, and indeed any others that may come to mind. It’s time to bring the right out of the closet again. We won’t do that by excluding people on the basis of ideological impurity, but neither will we do it without a broadly agreed set of principles that we can unite around.