A true social conservative is opposed to great inequality because of its corrosive and de-stabilizing consequences for families, communities and the national wellbeing. But the social conservative is concerned more about duties than 'rights'. Unashamedly paternalistic, the conservative considers it their duty to protect the weakest members of society such as children, the elderly and the disabled.

I think we need to define our terms here. What specifically do we mean by social conservatism? My view of the English working class is that the majority are culturally conservative but socially liberal to a moderate extent. They want want to conserve existing traditions and institutions but they don't want to turn the clock back to the 1950's. They mostly support centre-left economic polices without being sold on the progressive or 'woke' social justice movement. That is where the centre ground lies.

Excellent and highly recommended to all, but especially those voting in the coming May local elections in the UK.

The housing situation in the UK is obscene. Every parent should be up in arms about the fact that their children are condemned to a life of extortionate rents.

The fault of Thatcherism and Thatcher is that she seemed to think you could almost completely detach economic policy from social and moral conditions. Norman Tebbit summed it up when he made his famous "get on ye bike" speech when he condemned rioters in the 81 Toxteth and Brixton riots. They would talk of "Victorian Values" but would often failed to mention that there was an awful lot of criminality in 19th Century Britain, as Charles Dickens enjoyed documenting in his novels! Thatcher didn't seem to think of Bill Sykes when she talked of Victorian values...

If people with certain kinds of cultural or social views want to truly change society then they should focus less on Westminster and instead focus on the little platoons, as Edmund Burke would say. They should focus on their local communities etc... This is how you change public opinion that eventually will make its way into politics. Speaking as a gay person, this is exactly what gay people did. The focus wasn't overly on politics, it was on your local family and friends. Come out to your community and you change people's minds about what they think of homosexuality. Then the politics catches up, eventually.

Crime is on a downward trend? This is utterly complacent and absurd. People are most concerned with evil crimes - violent gangs and rapists especially of children and the incidence and severity of these have been increasing for decades. It is also preposterous to suggest as Ed does that because paramedics and surgeons save the lives of those stabbed that crimes have not occurred.

Ed West misses the point that private developers sit on land as an investment. We need to build houses now.

Good discussion 👍

I found it difficult to follow what West was saying due to poor sound quality, too 'echo-ey'. Please consult a sound engineer.

How is that "economic downturn that we are facing", going now???!!

Europeans Always tolerated people who were wealthier, for we had an aristocracy and royalty, no pogroms there because there was a sense of connection in a common polity and civilisational project, and so also of legitimacy. The Jews did not and so were not and their self selling point as economic middle man minority group was that outsider position and a capacity for ruthlessness as tax collectors, loansharks and slavers and latterly strong liquor and smut pushers that enabled them to accrue great wealth through extraction, exploitation and demoralisation of the local communities at the known risks of ruler repayment defaults and peasant revolt. As a very mobile community, with liquid wealth and the most extensive social and ethnic networks around the world they always had a freer choice of how to live and where than your average European of the lower or upper classes and there very few in the middle. Doubtless a great deal of folklore prejudice, religious and secular grew up and unfair blame and punishments were dealt out unjustly but the context was never simply that these were lovely outsiders on the pointy end of baseless mindless bigotry. It is an irony that the bloodlibel of murderous antisemitism has been so liberally doled out against our ancestors for half a century now without any pushback.

Would love to see Ed debate Douglas Murray

Honestly, what we need is less ideology in our politics. I used to be quite ideological my self at one time, but now I would support a political system that discouraged ideology. Different parties working together in govt. Most British people are pragmatic, it's people that are obsessed with politics that become so ideological. Maybe a jury style system for discussing certain big divisive topics may be a good idea that takes those issues out of the madness of party politics?

A more recent report from time.

16:17 Exactly. Wokeism is not liberalism.

Ed's mic is pointing down lol

Aren't the so called Tories now social Conservatives / Liberal? That's the issue with this country now. .No real choice in politics anymore ...

Britain's more liberal than you people think - more liberal than I, certainly economically. Thatcher, Blair, Cameron never would have happened if the electorate were how you talk about them. I get your economic worldview and Clouston seems a nice bloke, but the country doesn't want to go back to the 50s. Life was harsh for most people.

How does The Social Democratic Party differ from Corbyn?

The problem with political obsessives is that they think the govt can effect our culture. This is not true. Britain lived through 18 years of Tory government from 1979 to 1997 and was Britain more socially conservative or liberal in 1997 compared to 1979? The Tories have never, ever, made Britain more socially conservative. This has been the truth stretching back to the beginning of the 1800s. In Britain cultural change comes from the bottom, not the top. Hardly anyone in Britain is socially conservative today, in any meaningful sense, and being socially conservative is a net vote loser. Otherwise why do socially liberal governments keep winning? Why was Iain Duncan Smith, a social conservative, so unpopular as Tory leader? Why did David Cameron, a socially liberal Tory, win two general elections?