The case for national conservatism in the UK

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Between liberalism and fascism is a vast and forgotten space, according to Yoram Hazony. Last night, at UnHerd’s new Westminster HQ, the Israeli philosopher and political theorist gave a lecture which drew attention to the discarded ideologies which once competed with liberalism and presented his alternative: national conservatism. But could this movement come to Britain? Yes, Hazony said, but time is of the essence. In his words: “It’s now or never. Time’s up.” 

According to Hazony, liberalism is gone and “it’s not going to come back”. In the space of two years, the old liberal consensus has been usurped. “In the year 2020, the great majority of institutions, private and public,” he said, “went over from this traditional liberal view […] to something completely new […] woke neo-Marxism. We can talk about exactly what it is, but it’s certainly not liberalism.”

Hazony’s case for conservatism can be found in the word itself: the urgent need for us to conserve what we have inherited:

Hazony invoked pornography, prostitution and the breakup of the family unit as symptoms of this overthrow. Liberalism is not strong enough to derail this relentless overthrowing of inherited values, he said, because it does not tie people to a nation or a place. Liberalism turns us all into citizens of the world. There must be some loyalty or sense of obligation to that which you are trying to conserve:

If there is to be a coherent national conservative movement in Britain, then many of its potential members were present in the room last night. But with internal disputes as to the key principles of the movement, will it find its footing across the Atlantic? That, Hazony admitted, is yet to be seen.

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