Old Right (United Kingdom)

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In Britain, the term Old Right is sporadically used to refer to conservatives of various stripes before the emergence of Thatcherism in the late 1970s. The term can refer to groups as diverse as those who supported the League of Empire Loyalists, or, conversely, the Tory wing of post-war consensus politics (often called Butskellism).

The former axis of the British "Old Right" are known for their opposition to immigration, European union, and the break-up of the British Empire, while also being more wary of American influence than latter-day British Conservatives. The post-war centre-ground Tories who are sometimes also confusingly called "Old Right" were also often sceptical of the US, 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.