Reflections on conservatism

摘要

CONSERVATIVE PARTY literature makes plentiful reference to Sir Keir Starmer's knighthood. Tories hope it will signal to voters that the Labour Party's leader, a former human-rights lawyer who lives in a fashionable part of north London and defended immigrants and suspected extremists, is part of the metropolitan elite. If Sir Keir, who calls himself a socialist and was named after his party's first leader, saw his title in the same light, he might be expected to downplay it. But in his first speech to Labour's annual conference as leader, on September 22nd, he told his party that his investiture at Buckingham Palace was one of the proudest days of his parents' lives. His title is, he said, a symbol of what he owes Britain's education system. It was granted in recognition of his term as the head of Britain's public prosecution service, which he says he spent chasing terrorists and bent politicians. The subtext is that unlike his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, he is proud of the monarchy and the British state, and qualified for the nation's greatest office.