Bruce Anderson (columnist)

Last updated

Bruce Anderson (born 1949) [1] is a British political columnist, currently working as a freelancer. Formerly a political editor at The Spectator and contributor to the Daily Mail , he wrote for The Independent from 2003 to September 2010, and ConservativeHome until 2012.

Contents

Early life and education

Anderson was born in Orkney, and was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read History. [1] [2] He was a contemporary of the historian Paul Bew at both school and university. [3]

Politics

In his youth he was a Marxist, and it was as a member of the radical organization People's Democracy (alongside Bew) that he first became involved in the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland. Anderson participated in the most "dramatic moment in the story of People's Democracy": a four-day 'freedom walk' from Belfast to Derry, which began on New Year's Day 1969. On 4 January he and his fellow marchers were attacked by approximately 200 loyalists at Burntollet Bridge, just outside Derry. [4]

He still writes regularly for The Spectator, where his contributions are distinguished by their unstinting support for Britain's former Prime Minister David Cameron, whom he identified as a future Conservative Party leader in 2003. [5] Following the outcome of the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union in June 2016, Anderson commented that:

It is the sovereign people who have got everything catastrophically wrong. I would not be surprised if there is a surge in demand to recall David Cameron, in months rather than years. Not so much 'Come back, all is forgiven' as 'Come back, and forgive us.' [6]

Related Research Articles

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, having won the 2019 general election. It has been the primary governing party in Britain since 2010. The party is on the centre-right of the political spectrum, and encompasses various ideological factions including one-nation conservatives, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 357 Members of Parliament, 251 members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Welsh Parliament, 4 directly elected mayors, 30 police and crime commissioners, and around 7,500 local councillors. It holds the annual Conservative Party Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Unionist Party</span> Political party in Northern Ireland

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland, it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).

One-nation conservatism, also known as one-nationism or Tory democracy, is a paternalistic form of British political conservatism. It advocates the preservation of established institutions and traditional principles within a political democracy, in combination with social and economic programmes designed to benefit the ordinary person. According to this political philosophy, society should be allowed to develop in an organic way, rather than being engineered. It argues that members of society have obligations towards each other and particularly emphasises paternalism, meaning that those who are privileged and wealthy should pass on their benefits. It argues that this elite should work to reconcile the interests of all classes, including labour and management, rather than identifying the good of society solely with the interests of the business class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unionism in Ireland</span> Political ideology: union with Britain

Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution. As the overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestant minority, following Catholic Emancipation (1829) unionism mobilised to keep Ireland part of the United Kingdom and to defeat the efforts of Irish nationalists to restore a separate Irish parliament. Since Partition (1921), as Ulster Unionism its goal has been to maintain Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom and to resist a transfer of sovereignty to an all-Ireland republic. Within the framework of a 1998 peace settlement, unionists in Northern Ireland have had to accommodate Irish nationalists in a devolved government, while continuing to rely on the link with Britain to secure their cultural and economic interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Cameron</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016

David William Donald Cameron is a British politician and lobbyist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney from 2001 to 2016. He identifies as a one-nation conservative, and has been associated with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies.

The Ulster Unionist Labour Association was an association of trade unionists founded by Edward Carson in June 1918, aligned with the Ulster Unionists in Ireland. Members were known as Labour Unionists. In Britain, 1918 and 1919 were marked by intense class conflict. This phenomenon spread to Ireland, the whole of which was under British rule at the time. This period also saw a large increase in trade union membership and a series of strikes. These union activities raised fears in a section of the Ulster Unionist leadership, principally Edward Carson and R. Dawson Bates. Carson at this time was president of the British Empire Union, and had been predisposed to amplify the danger of a Bolshevik outbreak in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Bew</span> Ulster-born historian

Paul Anthony Elliott Bew, Baron Bew, is a British historian from Northern Ireland and a life peer. He has worked at Queen's University Belfast since 1979, and is currently Professor of Irish Politics, a position he has held since 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Harper</span> British Conservative politician

Mark James Harper is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Forest of Dean since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloody Sunday Inquiry</span> Investigation into the 30 January 1972 massacre by British soldiers

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry or the Saville Report after its chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns for a second inquiry by families of those killed and injured in Derry on Bloody Sunday during the peak of The Troubles. It was published on 15 June 2010. The inquiry was set up to establish a definitive version of the events of Sunday 30 January 1972, superseding the tribunal set up under Lord Widgery that had reported on 19 April 1972, 11 weeks after the events, and to resolve the accusations of a whitewash that had surrounded it.

Ivan Averill Cooper was an Irish politician from Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and a founding member of the SDLP. He is best known for leading the anti-internment march on 30 January 1972 that developed into the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peregrine Worsthorne</span> British journalist, writer and broadcaster (1923-2020)

Sir Peregrine Gerard Worsthorne was a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He spent the largest part of his career at the Telegraph newspaper titles, eventually becoming editor of The Sunday Telegraph for several years. He left the newspaper in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Bogdanor</span> British political scientist

Vernon Bernard Bogdanor is a British political scientist and historian, research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London and professor of politics at the New College of the Humanities. He is also emeritus professor of politics and government at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Norman</span> British Conservative politician

Alexander Jesse Norman is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Minister of State for the Americas and the Overseas Territories since 2022. He served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2021 and has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hereford and South Herefordshire since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Godson, Baron Godson</span>

Dean Aaron Godson, Baron Godson is the Director of the London-based think tank Policy Exchange.

This article concerns the policies, views and voting record of David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Cameron describes himself as a "modern compassionate conservative" and has said that he is "fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster". He has stated that he is "certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite." Our Society, Your Life, a 2007 policy statement for the Conservative Party launched shortly after David Cameron became leader of the party, has been seen by some as a triangulation of Conservative ideology with that of Tony Blair's New Labour, linking into the idea of the Third Way and an attempted revival of one-nation conservatism. There have been claims that he described himself to journalists at a dinner during the leadership contest as the "Heir to Blair", and Cameron stated in 2005 that he did not intend to oppose the Labour government as a matter of course, and will offer his support in areas of agreement. He also wants to move the Conservatives focus away from purely fiscal matters, saying "It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB – general well-being". However, commentators have questioned the degree to which Cameron and his coalition have embodied this, instead locating them in the intellectual tradition of Thatcherism. However, Cameron has claimed to be a "liberal Conservative", and "not a deeply ideological person".

William Hull was a loyalist activist in Northern Ireland. Hull was a leading figure in political, paramilitary and trade union circles during the early years of the Troubles. He is most remembered for being the leader of the Loyalist Association of Workers, a loyalist trade union-styled movement that briefly enjoyed a mass membership before fading.

Burntollet Bridge was the setting for an attack on 4 January 1969 during the first stages of the Troubles of Northern Ireland. A People's Democracy march from Belfast to Derry was attacked by Ulster loyalists whilst passing through Burntollet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Conservatives and Reformists</span> European Parliament political group

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is a soft Eurosceptic, anti-federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party European political party (formerly known as the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe or Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, but also includes MEPs from four other European parties and thirteen MEPs without European party affiliation.

John Bew is Professor in History and Foreign Policy at King's College London and from 2013 to 2014 held the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center.

The office of Treasurer of the Conservative Party was established in 1911, along with that of Chairman, as part of a wider reorganisation of the Conservative and Unionist Party's machinery following the party's failure to win the general elections of January and December 1910.

References

  1. 1 2 "Authors: Bruce Anderson". Hungarian Review. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  2. "Classics, History and Law Triposes". The Times. 30 June 1970.
  3. Godson, Dean (21 February 2007). "A tribute to Ulster's A.J.P. Taylor". The Spectator. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  4. Dean Godson, Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism (London: Harper Collins, 2004), p. 311
  5. My hero, The Spectator , 26 July 2003
  6. The Brexiteers will want David Cameron back soon enough, The Spectator , 2 July 2016