Bagehot | The new victims

摘要

IN HIS "LIFE OF THESEUS" Plutarch tells the story of the ship which carried Theseus and his crew back to Athens from their adventures in Crete. Awed by their heroism, the Athenians preserved the ship for several centuries by removing the old planks as they decayed and replacing them with new ones. Eventually the ship consisted entirely of new material. This led to a great debate among the philosophers: did the restored ship remain the same ship? Or was it a new one? The current Conservative Party poses Theseus's paradox in even starker form. The Conservatives have not only replaced the old planks. They have frequently refashioned them entirely. A party that was once a party of pragmatism is now a party of ideology. A party that was once a party of tradition is now a party of radical upheaval. Is this really the Conservative Party we have before us? Or a new party that simply has the same name?