Defence of private enterprise, private ownership and order are the only enduring Tory positions

The tory party have often been seen as a party of consistent ideology and as defenders of core principles and interests. I am never convinced by this argument. What is remarkable about the Conservatives is not their ideological or interest tenacity, but their willingness to jettison positions which no longer appeal: laissez-faire, the House of Lords, the Union with all Ireland, the empire, have all been abandoned when it suited the party, as to some extent have been the monarchy, the Church of England and the agricultural interest. Defence of private enterprise, private ownership and order are the only enduring Tory positions.

A. Seldon (ed.), How Tory governments fall (1996), 18