Contemporary conservatism can easily be seen as a hollowed-out creed. Combining heartless free-market individualism with an unthinking social liberalism – or else simple authoritarian populism – it offers little to those whose sense of meaning is securely rooted in their families, communities and country.
In Covenant, Danny Kruger, one of parliament’s leading thinkers, argues that we must restore the sources of virtue and belonging that underpin the good life. Our urgent task is to repair the covenantal relationships of love and partnership that our families, local communities and ultimately our country depend on. We must, he contends, go beyond a politics based purely on individual autonomy, social atomisation and self-worship. By examining the most fundamental questions of love, sex, life and death, ranging from marriage to assisted dying, Kruger charts a course towards a conservatism that can respond humanely and wisely to the social, environmental and economic crises that face us.
This riposte to both liberal orthodoxy and the authoritarian right is unmissable for anyone interested in British politics. It’s a key contribution to the debate on how the Conservative Party can respond to its current crisis.