Old Right (United Kingdom)

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In Britain, the term Old Right is sporadically used to refer to conservatives of various stripes who predated the emergence of Thatcherism, initially in opposition in the 1970s and then in government in the 1980s. The term is used most frequently to refer to the sort of Right-wingers who held what are now generally considered to be racist views on many issues and were often members of the League of Empire Loyalists, but it is occasionally also used to refer to the Tory wing of post-war consensus politics (often called Butskellism).

The former axis of the British "Old Right" are known for their staunch opposition to immigration, European federalism and the break-up of the British Empire while also being more culturally fogeyish and wary of American influence than latter-day Tories. The post-war centre-ground Tories who are sometimes (but much less often) also confusingly called "Old Right" are also often sceptical of the US and Israel, but much less virulently so than the former group; their wariness is of the political nationalist-Right in Israel and its hawkish allies in the US, not of the very existence of Israel or of Jews more generally. One major difference is that the Butskellite Tories were often strongly supportive of European integration and Britain's role in it, which distinguishes them from both the group more frequently referred to as "Old Right" and the Thatcher generation in the party.

The (arguably resurgent) remnants of both wings have recently been described, somewhat contentiously, as "Michael Moore Conservatives" by the writer Adrian Wooldridge, a reference to the American film director.