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ONSERVATISM, AS PRACTISED by the British Conservative Party, is a capacious creed, open to a wide range of interpretations. For Margaret Thatcher, it meant the moral and economic discipline of the free market; for David Cameron, liberal centrism and the embrace of globalisation.
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Boris Johnson’s interpretation has been hard to decipher, partly because it has been obscured by the chaos of covid-19 and partly because he has never shown any commitment to a set of political ideas. So the Queen’s Speech, delivered on May 11th, in which the government presents its programme for the next session of parliament, was of particular interest. It was the clearest expression so far of what might one day be called Johnsonism.