‘Let them eat cake’: Conservatism in the age of Boris Johnson
Renewal - ISSN 0968-5211
Volume 30 Number 2 (2022)
‘Let them eat cake’: Conservatism in the age of Boris Johnson
Robert Saunders pages 10-22
Abstract
Boris Johnson is often represented as an anomaly in Conservative history: an ‘unconservative’ figure who has transformed his party into something new. Yet Johnsonism has clear roots in the Conservative tradition, and Johnson himself is as much a product as the architect of changes in the party. His flair for rhetorical ambiguity has enabled him to hold together a divergent electoral coalition, but the return of political economy to the mainstream of public policy may challenge that approach in future.
To cite this article
Robert Saunders (2022) ‘Let them eat cake’: Conservatism in the age of Boris Johnson, Renewal, 30(2), 10-22