17-06-2025
Assisted dying bill is a conservative reform
I haven't always been a Conservative, but as far back as I can remember I have always been a conservative. Not fogeyish, certainly not reactionary, but always respectful of tradition and gently resistant to those proposing upheaval.
My conservatism is partly the product of experience, of being part of a family chased across the world by those advancing revolutionary ideologies. We have felt keenly the cost of wild ideas and appreciate the benefits of stability more, perhaps, than others.
But it's also, more prosaically, just how I am. It's an instinct. My failings, professionally and politically, are far more likely to derive from complacency and a surfeit of caution than from a fit of over-enthusiasm.
