Compassionate Conservatism - in The United Kingdom

In The United Kingdom

Recently, the term has been used to describe the policies and image associated with the United Kingdom's Conservative Party, under the current Prime Minister David Cameron. Due to Cameron's leadership, many concerns such as Environmentalism and Social Justice, which had hitherto been associated with social democratic, liberal and environmental movements, have been more particularly focused on by British Conservatism and sharply accentuated as a part of its ideological narrative and public policy image. This has occurred in concert with a playing down of traditional Tory opposition to immigration and European integration, and support for Grammar schools and lower taxes.

The U.K. form of compassionate conservatism is less explicitly associated with Christianity than its U.S. counterpart, although it has incorporated a concern for social and family breakdown into the Cameronian emphasis on Social Justice, informed by groups such as the Conservative Christian Fellowship, and the Centre for Social Justice headed by the Catholic MP and former Tory Leader, Iain Duncan Smith. The research by the latter, such as its reports 'Breakdown Britain' and 'Breakthrough Britain', has coincided with noted policy commitments by the Conservative Party to provide incentives for marriage, and proposals to discourage divorce and extra-marital cohabitation, as a means of encouraging social stability.