purplecthulhu

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 ...