But what is the One Nation?
Well to quote Wikipedia, One Nation Conservatism was created by Benjamin Disraeli as as a means for the Conservative party to appeal to the working class. The modern concept however is radically different to the origins of the One Nation and the terms recent history is very interesting to say the least.
Ed Miliband's Labour Party tried to appropriate the mantle of the One Nation Party because to be a One Nationer is to believe in a nation not divided by class, race or religion but where all peoples work together for their own benefit and for the common good. It is a principle that all of us should be honoured to espouse and, to quote David Cameron, it is a mantle we should never have given up.
You'll notice though that I made a subtle distinction at the beginning of this piece. I am not a One Nation Conservative. I am a One Nation Tory.
This is different to a traditional One Nation Conservative alla Benjamin Disraeli or Ted Heath because a Modern One Nation Tory is both socially liberal and fiscally prudent. We believe in the Big Society and self-reliance but, as I pointed out yesterday, we also believe that some people do need our help and we must be willing to give it.
Older style One Nation Conservatives, or wets as Margaret Thatcher called them, were... not like that. They believed in a broad consensus of Keynesian economics and government intervention. They tried to be better socialists then the socialists because they believed that was what the Nation wanted - but when Ted Heath asked in 1974 Who Governs Britain? he received a reply of "Not You Mate." and it paved the way for the Wilson/Callaghan disaster of the 1970s that Britain could have done without.
It took Margaret Thatcher to break us out of our mould and set the party on the path to a new age which saw us governing for a period of 18 years. We learned the lesson then and the New One Nation Tories understand it all too well. We never want a repeat of 1997 where Labour took from us the mantle of being the caring party in touch with the people and consigned us to the electoral wilderness as a result but we also don't want a repeat of the 1970s where being too much like Labour cost us our chance to govern for the One Nation.
It is a very fine line to walk, we must be caring and compassionate but also radical and firmly grounded in economic competence. We can never support the sort of unreconstructed socialism being peddled by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour (as the One Nation Conservatives did in the past) lest we be tarred with the same brush that brought us down once before.
Above all else though we must remember that we are a broad tent party. We have lots of groups with different ideologies (Thatcherites, Libertarians, Neo-Conservatives etc) but unlike those on the opposition benches we will not allow our differences to destroy us but will use them to make us stronger.
To quote Mrs T:
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