Britain produced two great Conservatives in the twentieth century, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Often accused of being “hysterical,” to use Iain Murray’s word (see “Abortion in Britain,” below), both insisted upon moral clarity, disdaining pragmatism. One crushed Hitler. The other transformed the British economy and played a critical role in the defeat of the Soviet Union.

Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Edward Heath, and John Major? All “tend[ed] toward the pragmatic,” to quote Murray once again. What did they accomplish? Broadly speaking, nothing.