This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents an analysis of the political thought of the Conservative Party. It traces the ideology of the Conservative Party through its most prominent thinkers. A number of commentators have argued that the Conservative Party is free from ideology. This has been argued by prominent Conservatives themselves and was frequently heard in the 1980s as opponents of Thatcherism claimed that Margaret Thatcher had brought in something alien to the Conservative Party ideology. The book distinguishes between four main ideological traditions present in the Conservative Party since 1945: traditional Toryism, New Right, Centrist and One Nation. The interrelationship between conservative and liberal elements within the New Right can be seen in the work of Enoch Powell, who combined a strong sense of national identity with free-market economic policies.

This chapter examines the motif of round-the-world flight, and the impact on surrounding society of the quirks of a single life, in Odoevsky's tale The Live Corpse. It is seen to be developed into what purports to be interplanetary flight. The chapter also examines the rise and fall of a civilisation, in Dostoevsky's late story The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. Particulars of such supposed cosmic travel may have been, in part at least, ‘borrowed’ by his successors from Dostoevsky. However this may be, such things are seen to be taken very much further, in twentieth-century English horror and science fiction writing, in key works by William Hope Hodgson and Olaf Stapledon.

This chapter provides a micro-historical analysis of William Fuller, who, during his lifetime, assumed several different elite roles, and analyses how Fuller represented himself and his surroundings, linking the themes of autobiography and imposture. It explains Fuller's sense of the mismatch between his own poverty and noble kin and his double or ‘poly-identity’ in religious, social and political terms, and also examines Fuller's self-representation and self-perception.

This chapter examines the campaign launched by the Daily Express against Great Britain's application to the EEC. It evaluates the roots, nature and centrality of national identity issues employed by the Express during its pursuit of the anti-Market campaign and examines the parameters and methods of Lord Beaverbrook's campaign, both within and outside Fleet Street. It analyzes manipulation of the banal components of identity, both as a defence of a British way of life and as part of a discourse on issues of national sovereignty, agriculture and Commonwealth trade.

This chapter begins with a background to non-international armed conflicts and a brief discussion of the threshold for the application of Article 8(2)(c) and (e). It then covers the origins and development of Article 8(2)(c)(i) Violence to life and person; Article 8(2)(c)(iv) Sentencing or execution without due process; Article 8(2)(e)(ii) Attacking objects or persons using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions; Article 8(2)(e)(vii) Using, conscripting or enlisting children; Article 8(2)(e)(viii) Displacing civilians; Article 8(2)(e)(ix) Killing or wounding treacherously a combatant adversary; Article 8(2)(e)(xii) Destroying or seizing the enemy's property; and Article 8(3).

This chapter analyses the Treaty of European Union (TEU) labelling of the threat posed by terrorism as a ‘matter of common interest’ for all EU member states in terms of the scale of threat posed and the nature of the terrorist challenge. It considers the long-running campaigns of nationalist-separatist groups, as well as the various right-wing and left-wing variants. This chapter suggests that there is a need to balance the avoidance of complacency with the maintenance of accuracy when portraying the nature of the wider threat and argues that it is also important not to simply accept at face value the assumption of a region-wide, let alone, global threat.

This chapter focuses on the participations of Scots in West Indian politics. It explains that from the earliest British settlement of the Windward Islands, Scots were influential in island politics, and were well represented in all the legislative bodies. It highlights the loyalty of the locals to the empire as demonstrated by the very ‘Britishness’ of their reactions to three major crises which include the easing of restrictions on Catholics in Grenada, the American Revolution, and the insurrections of the 1790s. This chapter argues that the transient nature of the white population in the islands ensured that the home country remained central to their consciousness and that the influence of substantial numbers of Scots in the islands' polities had profound implications for the legislatures' responses, and for fostering both integration and continuity in the Atlantic empire throughout an exceptionally turbulent period.

This chapter considers BBC broadcasting in Wales. Wales was not a region but a nation, though it lacked an identity. The study of broadcasting and national identity in Wales poses several problems unique to the principality. For one, the region of Wales in the BBC was not established until 1937. Further, Wales was divided by language and culture in ways quite different from Scotland. The traditional, rustic way of life of north Wales was quite distinct from the highly industrialized, urban, and anglophone culture of south Wales. On the one hand, the Welsh region had to battle with the BBC's Head Office in London over programmes, scheduling, hours of operation, and the use of the Welsh language and on the other hand, BBC radio in Wales was never Welsh enough to satisfy the Welsh nationalists, who demanded more Welsh-language programmes and eventually an independent broadcasting system for Wales. Defining a unitary ‘Wales’ and Welsh identity, while also struggling for autonomy from BBC Head Office, proved to be a challenge for Welsh broadcasters.

This chapter highlights the fact that the BBC's representation of empire during the Second World War is both challenging and revealing. Consistent with its policies from the 1930s, the BBC broadcasted a considerable number of empire programmes. But during the war, the empire and Commonwealth had to be constructed with even greater deliberation and precision. The BBC continued to employ the empire as a symbol of British unity and common effort. The themes of the benevolence of British rule and imperial unity, well established in the programmes of the 1930s, continued during the war. Three aspects of the BBC's projection of empire during the period 1939–53 are that, first, empire programmes during and after the war emphasized the full equality of the Commonwealth, second, the BBC promoted an image of empire that could accommodate itself to declared war aims and third, progressive themes such as the Commonwealth ideal of brotherhood and the ‘professional empire’ continued after war, but the mid-1940s also saw a revival, in broadcasting, of rousing and racist juvenile imperial fiction.

Quintin Hogg, Lord Hailsham, developed political ambitions at an early age. The Tory Reform Committee, which proceeded to issue a series of pamphlets on such topical issues as workmen's compensation, civil aviation, agriculture and land utilisation. In a contemporary account, Hogg reported that the committee 'has a proper executive to prepare its agenda, and meets every Wednesday evening in the House of Commons to discuss current affairs and to take common action on all business in the coming week'. In 1947 Hogg was asked to write a Penguin 'special', setting out The Case for Conservatism. It is probably his best-known book, and contains some memorable aphorisms. In debate on the Labour's 1968 Race Relations Bill, Hogg argued unavailingly that its terms should be extended to outlaw all irrelevant forms of discrimination, and he spoke eloquently against Enoch Powell at the 1968 party conference.

This chapter makes an analysis with regard to illegitimate children being raised in their own homes and families. It is noted that illegitimate children born in county homes and maternity hospitals were as likely to go home with their mothers as they were to be boarded out, sent to institutions, or sent overseas for adoption. Illegitimate children were either rejected or marginalized by stepfathers who resented the burden of providing for other men's children. Concerns about boarded-out children being overworked was further reflected in concerns for their school attendance. Some boarded-out children were neglected because of the age and infirmity of their foster parents. Children at nurse were particularly vulnerable to extreme neglect, and thus to premature death. A significant number of illegitimate children were raised with their own families, and they likely had experiences that differed little from working-class children who were born to married parents.

The significance of motherhood in early modern drama resonates beyond the boundaries of any individual theatrical characterisation. Its influence is evident, for example, in a subtle reference to a wife and mother in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. If motherhood operates as a relatively unchanging idea, it is also especially subject, in terms of the interpretation and presentation of that idea, to the influences and constraints of culture, politics and religion. During the period covered by this book, dramatists chose to emphasise different aspects of motherhood according to the demands of genre and theatre, and in response to contextual pressures. Rather than consider the dramatised mother in terms of subjectivity, the book explores her dramatic function in terms of the effect that the complex of meanings she embodies brings to the dynamics of dramatic narrative and structure.