Modern European Meaning
In modern European discourse, "liberal conservatism" usually encompass right-of-centre political outlooks that reject some of the traditionalism associated with Christian democratic or tory politics. This position is sometimes associated with support for moderate forms of social safety net and of environmentalism. "Liberal conservatism" in this sense is for instance represented by Michael Portillo or the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of the Moderate Party, the Conservative Party of Norway, and the Finnish National Coalition Party. In an interview with journalist Andrew Marr, for BBC Television shortly after taking office as Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he had always described himself as a liberal conservative. In his first speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2006 he defined this as believing in individual freedom and human rights, but being sceptical of "grand schemes to remake the world".
Read more about this topic: Liberal Conservatism
Famous quotes containing the words modern, european and/or meaning:
“Every modern male has, lying at the bottom of his psyche, a large, primitive being covered with hair down to his feet. Making contact with this Wild Man is the step the Eighties male or the Nineties male has yet to take. That bucketing-out process has yet to begin in our contemporary culture.”
—Robert Bly (b. 1926)
“We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“To summarize the contentions of this paper then. Firstly, the phrase ‘the meaning of a word’ is a spurious phrase. Secondly and consequently, a re-examination is needed of phrases like the two which I discuss, ‘being a part of the meaning of’ and ‘having the same meaning.’ On these matters, dogmatists require prodding: although history indeed suggests that it may sometimes be better to let sleeping dogmatists lie.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)