The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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Of
course there were risks in moving quickly. But the risks of moving
slowly were far
greater.”5

I
mentioned five that, although being a socialist party, nevertheless the
Labour Party strongly believed
that Britain’s position as a great power must
remain, and Bevin was emphatic on this issue. The
extracts from his
memorandum in the previous chapter indicated Bevin’s intention. Therefore,
the
Labour Party harmonized their socialist anti-colonialism with British
nationalism, and
protecting the United Kingdom’s interests in the former Empire.
The Conservative Party, however,
traditionally and conspicuously supported
standing for the British Empire and its expansion. Churchill
once said in the
1930s, about India’s independence, that “the Indians would never be fit to
govern
themselves, and that in any case to give them independence would undermine the
whole of the
British Empire.”6 On another occasion regarding
India’s
independence Churchill commented: “You will depress the British heartbeat all
over
the globe.”7 In the previous chapter attention was given to the
Labour Party’s
colonial doctrine. Therefore, in this chapter, we should study the attitude of
the
Conservative Party towards colonialism in greater detail, before the studies
proceed any
further.

The
Conservative Party “proclaims the necessity for capital-labour co-
operation and a
‘property-owning democracy’. It proclaims the need for free
competition in industry and the end
of restictive practices both between
employers and among employees. It is the party of social mobility.
‘Quality and
not equality’ and ‘opportunity rather than security’ are two of its
slogans.”8 The
Conservative Party’s policies are, on the
whole, hard to characterise, “At some
periods ideas such as individual freedom will be clearly
articulated and may even
produce concrete policy proposals designed to promote such
values.”9 At some
other periods, as was witnessed in the policy
of the Labour Party, and any other
party, it may “seem to embody so wide a range of political ideas
that few

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