The conservative party

By Karina, Azeezat and Gini

Introduction and History

Conservative Party is the oldest political party in the world. Political parties began to form during the civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s. First, there were Royalists and Parliamentarians; then Tories and Whigs. The Tories were in eclipse for much of the eighteenth century, but came to the fore again thanks to William Pitt the Younger. He held power for over 18 years from 1783, making him the longest-serving of all Prime Ministers connected with the Party. Pitt helped to lay the basis of modern prosperity by opening up free trade and reforming the public finances.

Information and History

Sir Robert Peel became one of the Party's most decisive agents for change after taking over the leadership in 1834. He reinterpreted key elements of the Tory tradition to create the modern Conservative Party, and led a reforming government whose commitment to free trade resulted in import duties being swept away.Peel also brought in important social reforms, with measures to improve public health and regulate factory hours. The Creation of a National Party Peel aroused strong opposition - and a bitter internal split over the repeal of the Corn Laws put the Party into the political wilderness for nearly 30 years. Momentum was eventually regained in the 1860s when Benjamin Disraeli took up the baton of change and added national and social unity to the Party's fundamental purposes .His 'one nation' vision and desire to close the gulf between rich and poor led to important social legislation, such as major steps towards slum clearance and town planning.

LEADERS
During the post-war consensus of 1951-64, the Conservatives were in government under Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and the Party's new approach made Britain more prosperous than ever: The standard of living rose by 50% Home ownership rose 20% 7,000 new schools were built -The first motorways were opened From 1965 until 1975 the Party was led by Edward Heath, who will forever be remembered for taking Britain into the European Economic Community as Prime Minister.

The leader of the conservative party and the prime minister is David Cameron and there are currently 306 conservative members of parliament the house of commons.

Finances
The conservative party relies on business and private donations.The Government believes that business is the driver of economic growth and innovation, and that we need to take urgent action to boost enterprise, support green growth and build a new and more responsible economic model. They want to create a fairer and more balanced economy, where we are not so dependent on a narrow range of economic sectors, and where new businesses and economic opportunities are more evenly shared between regions and industries.

The economics
The Government believes that it is the most vulnerable who are most at risk from the debt crisis and that it is deeply unfair to leave it to our children to pay off. We are currently spending 120 million every day on debt interest alone. They understand that the longer we leave the nations credit card bill, the worse it will get. So we have taken immediate action to tackle the deficit and debt in a fair way to get the public finances back on track. We have set out a credible plan to tackle the deficit and debt. Their plan will eliminate the structural deficit the part that does not go away as the economy grows over the next years, with the main burden borne by reduced spending rather than increased taxes. The National Debt as a share of our economy will be falling by the end of the parliament.

Thank you for listening!