The Republican Transformation of Modern British Policies

the long version

'The left had long talked of destroying the British Establishment; the Right did it.' This is an original study of a major change in the political thinking of modern Britainches In a re-evaluation of contemporary history, it is argued that the period between 1956 and 1968 saw a seminal change which created the ideological framework of today's politics. A republican tradition of active citizenship, community and democracy was developed within the Marxist language of the new Left. Their socialism prevented them breaking with the idea of a state-directed economy, but radical Liberals around Jo Grimond and the Unservile State group developed this republican politics in the direction of a citizen market. The Right completed the new political framework through their republican version of a property-owners democracy, developed from the politics of Michael Oakeshott and Enoch Powell. Contemporary political thinking has developed from both the Left and the Right of this period.