Why Civil Liberties are Important : comments [purplecthulhu]

I was confused for a bit ... I would use small-c Conservative to mean "right-wing person who isn't a member of the Conservative & Unionist party". I think I'd use "authoritarian" to describe someone who believes in more State involvement ...

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I see what you mean, but no - I'd use "conservative" (small c) to mean someone who believes in a kind of social 'status quo', regardless of which end of the political spectrum they adhere to. George Orwell, for example, I would say was a deeply conservative person. So is Roy Hattersley.

I mean that a conservative believes that things don't change -

gastrodog's conviction that the government is benevolent and trustworthy and that this will never change is a perfect example of a conservative belief. Introducing compulsory ID cards into a world where things don't change won't - can't - make any real difference - just one more piece of plastic, not a shattering change to our civil liberties.

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I can understand your explanation very well, but I would say that using the word conservative to refer to Roy Hattersley is not something I would do, in the interests of clarity. The words "conservative" and "liberal" have become fairly attached to the respective political parties over the centuries.

I of course recognise your right to use conservative (without a qualifying adjective like "social") in that sense, as the word does have other meanings, but if one is too reverent to old meanings of words then one runs the risk of calling (say) Thatcher a liberal, which just seems viscerally *wrong* :)

I'd use a less Party-politically charged word like "traditionalist" - a traditionalist believes that things should stay as they've traditionally been. So Hattersley is a traditionalist socialist under this, and the view that ID cards aren't a massive constitional change might be a traditionalist viewpoint ...

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Very good point. You're right: traditionalist might have been a better word, though I still think that "conservative" has its good points. But I should have used "conservative" with rather more explanation than just "small-c".

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