This thesis analyses the Conservative Party's electoral demise in Scotland from 1979 to 1997. This subject has already been extensively explored elsewhere. However, whilst acknowledging the validity and importance of what might be described as the canon of traditional reasons given for the Party's problems north of the border, this thesis identifies and explains the importance of a previously undervalued dynamic in the Scottish party political process. The central argument of this thesis is that the role of local party politics in Scotland has a significant impact on General Elections. The hypothesis under consideration is whether the Conservative Party found it particularly difficult to recover in General Elections subsequent to notable losses in levels of Local Government representation north of the border. Thus, the more qualitative aspects ofthis thesis establish why this might have been the case. This extra aspect of the party political system in Scotland is developed through a series of studies that analyse primary and secondary sources and the results of an elite and Local Councillor interview programme. These studies assess what Conservative Governments in London were hoping to achieve with their policies, how Local Government in Scotland reacted and what effect these dynamics had on the electorate north of the border. After a case study on Stirling that examines how the matters in hand impacted upon a specific community, the Conclusion is then informed by a study of General and Local Government Election results from across the whole of the UK from 1979-1991. This thesis is not a comparative study of Local Government in Scotland and England. However, as the results in Chapter 1 demonstrate, the Conservatives did seem to find it much more difficult to recover from Local Government representation losses in subsequent General Elections north of the border. This suggests that the variable under consideration is a significant addition to the canon of reasons for their electoral demise in Scotland.

After centuries of relative isolation as an outpost loyal to the English Crown the small Island of Jersey was, in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, opened to the twin forces of large-scale immigration and economic expansion. Jersey was a product of peculiar historical circumstance, which resulted in a cossetted existence and a high degree of independence. Economic growth, founded on a merchant-based economy and on agriculture, was both fuelled by and attracted English and French immigrants. The presence of a large urban population, many of who were non-local, and wealth, created friction in a society whose institutions were designed for a dispersed rural population. An identifiable urban bloc developed and demanded access to power proportional to its wealth and size and the reform of certain structures along lines more conducive to economic life. Alongside direct political challenge was a more subtle linguistic and cultural challenge. This thesis examines these forces at work in Jersey society and assesses their impact. Emphasis is placed on the rural community, as the representative of traditional Jersey society and the guardians of local power and independence. It is argued that the potential forces of change and challenge were, by the end of the century, fairly comfortably assimilated or contained. With the exception of a Nonconformist challenge in the countryside, the challenges to Jersey society were inseparably linked to immigration and economic expansion, yet never provided a coherent and concerted attack on all fronts. The rural community was most successful at defending its institutions, yet was unable to stem the flow of English language and culture. In the short term Jersey succeeded in controlling the forces ranged against its society, but in the long tern institutional strength belied a weakening at the foundations.

The introduction to the thesis gives an overview of the life and career of Thomas Wriothesley and considers the primary and secondary sources which provide the material upon which the thesis is based. It is followed by a detailed consideration of Wriothesley's sixteen years in the service of Wolsey. and Cromwell, recording his growing competence and authority in the administrative machinery of mid-Tudor government and in his influence in the day to day management of state affairs as Cromwell's secretary. The third section concentrates on Wriothesley's four years as the king's secretary, referring to his work in the financial field in obtaining funds to finance the king's wars. It examines his growing status in the court and privy council, and reviews his work as an ambassador for Henry after 1530. Henry's confidence in him ensured his occasional employment as a special, rather than resident ambassador to the imperial court, and his work in this specialist field is investigated. Wriothesley held the office of lord chancellor for only three years and in that period made a limited impact in a judicial sense, in part due to his restricted professional expertise. His principal function over those years, of finding means to financing the high costs of Henry's military campaigns, and putting in order the chaotic condition of the monetary system, is closely examined. Wriothesley's growing involvement as lord chancellor in the developing factional struggles that encompassed the privy chamber and the council mostly, but not only, in religious matters is also assessed. His role in other aspects of the office of lord chancellor, in parliament, in framing proclamations and as the senior member of the government dealing with foreign ambassadors,is considered in detail. Perhaps the most important feature of the last years of Wriothesley's career was his deep involvement in the political and religious turmoils of the latter years of Henry's reign and the first two years of Edward's. In the period between 1544 and 1550, perhaps for the only occasions in his life, serious misjudgement of events put him in real peril of his life and property, lost him the office of lord chancellor and effectively sidelined him for most of the last two years of his life. In his efforts to ruin Queen Catherine Parr, his harassment of reformers, and in his mistaken view during the last three months of the Protectorate that Warwick was really a Henrician catholic in disguise, Thomas Wriothesley showed a surprising degree of self-deception. His actions suggest that his political instinct failed him at the most crucial points in his career. Substantial rewards, which usually followed a period of valuable royal service or successful military achievement, were in Wriothesley's case gathered in a relatively short lifetime of determined endeavour. We examine in Appendix 1, the many financial benefits and landed property he secured and retained successfully, the offices he gathered and consider the extent of his authority and influence in his home county of Hampshire. In Appendices 2 and 3 we look briefly at Titchfield Place, Wriothesley's home in Hampshire and the detailed provisions of his Will. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the life, administrative and political career of Thomas Wriothesley, in the context of the mid-Tudor period.

This thesis examines the concept of the nation found in British conservative thought (the "conservative nation"), and its relevance to the policies and doctrine of the Conservative Party, especially in the Thatcher years. I argue that as a political doctrine, nationalism is essentially nebulous, gaining distinctive character from the discourse with which it is jointly-articulated and from its environment. Thus the British conservative nation is a distinct form of nationalist doctrine, built on core conservative values and on specific socio-historical factors. Its key themes are: (i) tradition; (ii) organicism; (iii) community; (iv) hierarchy; (v) antirationalism. The conservative nation has also been bolstered by the use of historical myths and symbols eg imperialism, Unionism and the monarchy. The ideal-type conservative nation fuses ethnic (cultural) and civic (political) accounts of the nation, but contains significant sub-categories based on a separation of the political and cultural models. Chapter Two traces key moments in the development of the conservative nation, notably Burke's conservative state patriotism and the late 19th century emergence of the Conservative Party's "national strategy", based on a coherent idea of the nation and populist nationalism. Chapter Three looks at the breakdown of the concept into its political and cultural components by New Right theorists. It focuses on Hayek and Oakeshott as proponents of the political account, plus, Scruton and Casey as adherents to a cultural account. Chapter Four examines Powell's redefinition of the nation and the ultimate failure of his attempt to construct a nationalist strategy to cover policy on immigration, the European Community and the Union. The second half of the thesis looks at Thatcherism's revival of the language of nationhood, but argues that doctrinal tensions and the need for pragmatic issue management worked against the development of a coherent concept of the nation or a consistent national strategy. Chapter Five examines Thatcherism as (a) Mrs Thatcher's personal values; (b) a political doctrine, noting the tensions between its - free market and strong state branches; and (c) as statecraft or issue management. The Falklands Var and policies on the territorial Union provide examples of the relative successes and failures in Thatcherism's "politics of nationhood". Subsequent chapters use detailed case studies on the European Community and the politics of race to illustrate Thatcherism's use of nationalist rhetoric, and its failure to construct a coherent national strategy across these policy areas. Chapter Six assesses British policy on the EC, the integration process and ideas of sovereignty. Chapter Seven outlines the main themes of the debate between Euro-sceptics and Euro-enthusiasts in the Conservative Party. In Chapter Eight I examine the problems which the management of an ethnically plural society has posed for Thatcherism and the conservative nation in general, assessing policies an immigration and integration. The thesis concludes by contrasting the shortcomings of the Thatcherite account of the nation with the positive themes of identity and community inherent in the conservative nation.

The maintenance of civil order in Guernsey's pre-Reformation community was regulated by a variety of secular institutions, the most important of which was the Royal Court. Religious beliefs and practices helped to reinforce stability and legitimized traditional authority. Catholic practice, including charity and the activities of numerous fraternities - not hitherto noticed in Guernsey - engendered social cohesion. Any major changes in the island's religious life threatened this traditional polity. When religious alterations loomed in the wake of Henrician and Edwardian changes in England, the Guernsey authorities chose to conceal religious revenues and subvert English intentions. Traditional practices and institutions predominated until the reign of Elizabeth -a finding which contradicts previous studies. In the fifteen-sixties, however, the English Government appointed a series of commissions to seize Catholic dues and close down traditional institutions. The commissioners favoured local Protestants materially, and in 1565 elevated some of them to the Royal Court. The possibilities offered by a Calvinist system of social control appealed to the island's elite group. Calvinist organisation facilitated the enforcement of discipline, Catholic revenues were turned to private and secular purposes, and the elite retained power. The new Church depended on the secular authorities for its survival; it needed magistrates to allow foreign ministers to settle, to educate local ones, and to fend off the threat of an imposed settlement in line with the English settlement of 1559. The Church also repeatedly requested the Court to enact legislation in line with Calvinist principles, which it did. Although the records do not lend themselves to quantitative analysis, it is clear however that the Court often neglected to enforce such legislation. The Church's own remedies frequently were inadequate and ineffective. The secular power responded more positively in other areas. The Church's role in succouring the poor was encouraged, and the elite itself benefited materially as a consequence of Calvinist ideas. But the price paid for the retention of the elite's control and the material advantages it gained was the failure of the Calvinist dream and increased cultural differentiation in the community.

This thesis explores how James I performed and represented his royalty in two key areas. The first is his engagement with the European tradition of magnificence, which was a central aspect of Renaissance court culture, in such areas as public appearance and liberality. The second is his self-representation in his writings. James prioritised verbal over visual forms of self-representation and portrayed himself as a Writer-King, and these are amongst the most distinctive aspects of his kingship. The thesis examines a range of primary sources, principally James’s writings but also contemporary responses to the king’s self-representation, such as letters and ambassadorial reports, and engages with other critical and historical studies. The gaps and misapprehensions in accounts of James that this thesis contributes towards rectifying derive from several general tendencies. There has been an over-reliance on the early historiography of James, a lack of work on the Scottish and European contexts for his self-representation in England, and little attention paid to his writings. This thesis combines the close reading of the ‘literary’ approach with the attention to context of the ‘historical’ approach, placing the discussion of James’s self-representation within the cultural and political contexts of Scotland and England, and considering his cultural and political engagement with continental Europe. It has four main chapters, one on James’s background in Scotland, one on his performance of the role of magnificent king in England, and two on the writings he wrote or republished in England. The discussion reveals that in Scotland James developed tendencies, strategies, and anxieties that would continue into his English reign, and argues that negative perceptions of him in England derived largely from a clash between the style he had developed and the expectations of his new subjects. It examines James’s attempts to combine authorship and authority and reveals their problematic relationship. The discussion suggests that James was aware of the importance of effective self-representation, but his style, the clash of expectations, and problems inherent in the representation of royalty, meant that his attempts to reinforce his image risked undermining and demystifying the king.

The thesis traces the rise of popular Imperialist sentiment, which developed via Conservative clubs and fringe groups such an the Primrose League. Pressure for expansion reached a peak, in the Sudan campaign of 1884-5 and the mass eulogy of General Gordon. An uninhibited and aggressive belief in expansion overlapped with jingoism which reached a height during the Boer War with violently patriotic displays. Humanitarian pressure groups such as the Anti- Slavery Society and the Missions were important in the development of an Imperialist position. Humanitarians demanded the annexation of East/Central Africa and Uganda in order to put an end to the slave trade, to help the spread of Christianity or to provide benefits for the native population. The agitation for the retention of Uganda in 1892, wan largely organised by the Church Missionary Society. Commercial arguments for expansion played only a minor part in public opinion; though a small group of chartered company promoters and African enthusiasts were thinking in terms of now markets and raw materials. But popular Imperialism was best defined as an expreasion of nationalism and hostility to foreigners, culminating in aggressively militaristic stands over certain issues, - notable the Sudan campaign of 1884-5, Fashoda in 1898 and the Boer War 1899-1900. The strongent opposition to expansion in Africa came from Nonconformists and Gladstonian Radicals or Socialists. This did not always imply hostility towards all Empire however; the Empire of the self-governing colonies and respectable dependencies was widely accepted by 1900, and even expansion was not opposed on principle so much as on the merits of each individual case. The intervention of the Liberal Government in Egypt and the Sudan in 1882-5 helped to reconcile a number of Liberals to interference in Africa. There was a noticable absence of opposition to the annexation of Uganda and of the Sudan in 1898, Nonconformists and Liberals made a strong stand against the impending Boer war of 1899, but after war broke out the opposition disintegrated, - Socialists and Gadstonian Nonconformists had little in common apart from dislike of the war. The period thus shows an erosion of Liberal anti- Imperialism. Liberals who started in the full flush of Midlothian opposition to Disraelian Foreign Policy, began to absorb a Good many imperialist assumptions by the end of the century.

In the closing years of the 18th century, as linen weaving was displaced by cotton in many English towns, the industry took refuge in a few localities, one of which was the township of Barnsley. The Barnsley linen industry expanded in the first three decades of the 19th century and attracted a large immigrant labour force. But owing to competition from cotton and from linen produced in Ireland and Scotland, the town's linen trade began to decline. By the mid-1850's, it was no longer the staple industry. Coal had replaced it. This study examines the social and economic structure of Barnsley during its rapid urbanization. By employing statistical sources traditionally neglected by historians, it goes beyond other social and economic histories of the period. The problems of the Bnglish linen trade, whose history has never been written, are discussed. The plight of the linen weavers who suffered from chronic unemployment, declining wages and bad living conditions, is compared and contrasted with the position of the coal miners, whose industry, in the last years of our period, enjoyed prosperity. The industrial militancy of the weavers, who persistently tried to resist wage reductions, contrasted with the relative docility of the miners. Barnsley played a prominent role in radicalism, Chartism and other working-class movements of the early 19th century. This thesis aims to relate these developments to the community in which they took place. The class-consciousness of the Barnsley workers had marry roots: the peculiar problems of the linen trade; the oligarchic nature of its parochial institutions, dominated by employers; and the influence of its immigrant population. The ideas which interacted with these forces are also discussed.

Much of the study of the British Conservative Party has been concerned with the power of the Party Leader. Two conflicting interpretations have been presented: the monolithic view that power lies essentially in the hands of the Leader, and the pluralist view that power is widely dispersed within the party. This dissertation examines the validity of these interpretations with regard to the question of Britain's attitude to European integration from 1945 to 1975, an issue which has traditionally been seen to support the monolithic view. The primary method of investigation in this study has been the examination of primary sources in the archives of the Conservative Party and other relevant bodies, supported by interviews with participants. The Introduction presents the two interpretations and demonstrates that the monolithic view has been widely presented as the correct one to explain the party's position on European integration. Chapter One reviews the literature on the distribution of power within the Conservative Party. Within the framework of the various elements that make up the party, the issue is examined chronologically. Chapter Two examines 1945 to 1951; Chapter Three, 1951 to 1960; Chapter Four, 1961 to 1963; Chapter Five, 1963 to 1970; Chapter 6, 1970 to 1972; and Chapter Seven, 1973-1975. The final chapter argues that the electoral orientation of the Conservative Party leads to a pluralist distribution of power, and that the study of the European issue supports that interpretation. This thesis substantially undermines an important source of support for the monolithic interpretation and provides additional support for the pluralist view of the distribution of power within the Conservative Party.

This thesis employs an analytical concept of 'utopianism' to examine British political culture between the economic crisis of 1929-31 and the 1945 election. In contrast to the commonplace meanings of 'utopia', utopianism is understood in a positive sense and conceptualised as composed of three dialectically interrelated parts. In summary, the starting point of any utopia is an appreciation of life as it is, based on a critical gaze on society specific to the life-world of the onlooker. This gaze is parent to the second part of this concept, the object of desire, the utopia itself. The third aspect of utopianism is the 'praxis of desire', the strategies and tactics by which the good life is sought. This concept is employed to focus on the rhetorical formations and discursive content of the public utterances of the Labour Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the British Union of Fascists, the Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals and the Common Wealth party, known collectively as the 'New Utopians'. The critiques of existing society, ideals of the 'New Man' and blueprints for, and visions of, the 'New Britain' of these parties are drawn out and discussed. As an alternative analytical framework to 'class' models of politics, the concept of utopianism de-familiarises the material, allowing the commonality and promiscuity of political ideas to emerge. Through the notion of the 'praxis of desire', how utopia was sought in a national tradition of democracy, continuity and non-violence is examined, and the dichotomy between 'utopian' and 'practical' politics interrogated. Finally, an alternative narrative of the 'Road to 1945' is constructed. By viewing the aspirations of ordinary people in terms of 'demotic utopianism', the political subject is posited as an active, reflective agent rather than an individual whose 'interests' are prefigured by their 'class'. In this way the diversity and subjectivity of desire is reinserted into the historical narrative.