Les “nouveaux” conservateurs britanniques sont à la droite de Thatcher

Le parti conservateur est-il “rajeuni”, consensuel, centriste, etc. ? Il est temps de s’expliquer. C’est ce que fait Matthew Parris, qui nous expose, dans The Times du 20 mai, que les nouveaux conservateurs ressortent les vieux plats des special relationships avec une vigueur jamais connue dans l’alignement. Parris observe, en envisageant l’hypothèse d’une victoire conservatrice, que « we could be just a few years from a Cabinet in which the Prime Minister, the Foreign and Defence Secretaries and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, are to the right of Margaret Thatcher in their view of Britain’s place in the world ».

Parris a relevé divers articles, interventions, etc., de certains des nouveaux dirigeants conservateurs, et en tire la conclusion qu’ils ne sont nullement au centre-droit (c’est l’image qu’on a donnée de Cameron) mais bien à la droite du parti conservateur, c’est-à-dire quasiment alignés sur les néo-conservateurs américains, — ou sur le Pentagone.

« As Shadow Foreign Secretary, Cameron chose William Hague. Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Michael Ancram, both experienced pragmatists in international relations, both doubters on Iraq, were overlooked. There were good reasons for choosing Hague, but perhaps because of these, and because he is an affable chap, I suspect analysts overlooked this distinct rightwards foreign-policy lurch.

» Like Osborne, Hague is a passionate Atlanticist. It was perhaps Liam Fox, Cameron’s Shadow Defence Secretary, who (speaking in Washington this February) put their approach to the “special relationship” best: “Britain and America trust one another because we look at the world in the same way. We share the same roots, nourish the same aspirations, thrill to the same ideals.”

» And Hague would cheer that to the echo. No less than Osborne, Hague has brooked no hint of doubt about the wisdom of the Iraq war. The way Cameron Conservatism has hardened, not softened, opposition support for Tony Blair on Iraq deserves more attention. Michael Howard said he would have voted against the war if he had known what he knows now.

» Hague, Fox and Cameron have ripped that from the Tory songsheet. In August last year, describing the fight as “a truly noble cause at a time of trial”, Hague made a rather extraordinary speech, comparing jihadism with the Nazi threat in the 1930s.

(...)

» This stuff is pure Pentagon. And the Conservative front bench have applied the thinking with enthusiasm, with Fox appearing to suggest that a lack of clarity about the role of British forces in southern Afghanistan might be remedied by sharpening the role and reinforcing the troops. »

Mis en ligne le 23 mai 2006 à 09H59