REACTING TO COVID POLICIESand wokeness, conservatives have become monomaniacal about freedom. It’s not hard to see why. The Left’s support for both — one curbing civil liberties and the other threatening their right to expression — has reinforced the Thatcherite rhetoric that the right must be the bastion of freedom. This was not lost on Liz Truss when she declared: “That is what Conservatism is about. It is a belief in freedom."
Yet freedom “is a very good horse, but to ride somewhere”. These words by the Victorian poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold ought to resonate at a moment when conservatism is in search of direction. They offer a much-needed qualification of the freedom, progress and “growth” that modern conservatives say they covet.
This is the bicentenary of Matthew Arnold’s birth. Born in 1822 in the village of Laleham on the River Thames to the Anglican cleric and educational reformer Thomas Arnold, he was one of the most original thinkers in the history of English political thought and a major influence on Roger Scruton. His literary talents were recognised at a young age when he was awarded a scholarship to study at Oxford, later becoming a fellow of Oriel College. As well as working as an inspector of schools, he was a celebrated author, perhaps most famous for his lyric poem “Dover Beach”.
