British neoconservatism

British neoconservatism is more socially liberal than its US counterpart, but shares a world view of threats and opportunities. British neoconservatives are strong proponents of foreign intervention in the Arab world and beyond, the role of the private sector in military contracts and an alliance with Israel. Neoconservatism is also attractive to members of the Christian right, based on shared values. Factions in the British Conservative Party refer to themselves as being liberal conservative rather than neoconservative.

There is a suspicion in British public life of 'philosophy', which has meant that politicians in the UK rarely refer to any overarching theories. In The Centre-left and New Right Divide?: Political Philosophy and Aspects of UK Social Policy in the Era of the welfare State, for example, Steven Smith argues that academic explanations of the resilience of the welfare state in the face of the New Right reforms have focused on the social, political and economic processes that tend to bolster the activities of state welfare provision, rather than the underlying philosophies.

Spinwatch describes Douglas Murray as 'the 'enfant terrible' of British neoconservatism. Murray is typical of the movement in arguing that the 'innate flaws of liberal democracy' leave Europe vulnerable to exploitation and domination by Islamic Fundamentalists; and that strong armed forces prepared to go to war are essential to the survival of what he sees as Conservative values. As head of the Centre for Social Cohesion his ideas have been influential in some NATO circles. Philosophically, he claims to be influenced by the authoritarianism of Leo Strauss, and the concept of dhimmitude as it was put forward by Bat Ye'or.

Murray's keynote book, Neoconservatism: Why We Need It was published by the Social Affairs Unit in 2005. An inspiration for Murray, who he frequently praises in the book, is the academic philosopher, Roger Scruton, who was part of a group of right-wing Cambridge University intellectuals under the influence of Maurice Cowling, an historian. In 1978 Cowling helped found the Salisbury Group of conservative thinkers (named after the earlier British Prime Minister). In the same year Cowling published Conservative Essays which states boldly:

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