Jamie Mulhall: The case for Anglo-Gaullism – a new conservative purpose

Jamie Mulhall is a Conservative councillor in Derby, Deputy Chairman of the LGBT+ Conservatives, and former Parliamentary Candidate for Derby South.

The Conservative Party is in a fight for its life. Not because our values are wrong, but because we have too often failed to articulate them with confidence. Where some see a pincer movement between a stalling Labour government and the noisy insurgency of Reform, I see a historic opportunity for renewal.

This is our moment to stop reacting to the agendas of others and start defining our own. If we remain a party that oscillates between panicked populism and grey managerialism, we will not just lose the next election, we will deserve to.

At moments of national uncertainty, Conservatism has always renewed itself not by chasing shadows, but by reclaiming its purpose. That is why the time has come for Anglo-Gaullism.

Anglo-Gaullism is not authoritarianism with a glossy fresh coat of paint, nor is it technocratic liberalism with a Union Jack draped over a Whitehall excel spreadsheet. While it draws inspiration from Charles de Gaulle’s focus on national prestige, it is emphatically British, shaped by our parliamentary democracy, our common law tradition, and our instinctive suspicion of over-mighty bureaucracies.

At its core, it rests on five pillars:

The Nation-State is the Primary Actor: Supranationalism is a hollow substitute for the loyalty of citizens.

The State Must Be Strong, But Limited: It should do a few things with overwhelming competence rather than a thousand things poorly.

Markets are Servants, Not Masters: Capitalism is the engine of prosperity, but it must operate within a strategic national framework.

Democratic Legitimacy Outranks Technocracy: Decisions should be made by those we can fire, not those we can’t find.

Patriotism is a Civic Virtue: It is the glue of a diverse society, not a cultural weapon.

This isn’t a rejection of Thatcherism; it is its necessary evolution. Margaret Thatcher broke the “managed decline” of the 1970s by restoring market discipline, curbing inflation, and reasserting the primacy of enterprise over the state. But Britain in 2026 and going into the 2030s faces different demons: energy insecurity, stagnant productivity, and a world in which “just-in-time” supply chains have proven dangerously fragile. Fidelity to Conservatism means adapting principles to new conditions, not freezing them in aspic.

Nor is Anglo-Gaullism a rejection of One Nation Conservatism. Figures such as Benjamin Disraeli understood that national cohesion, social stability, and economic strength are inseparable. The Conservative tradition has always accepted that the state has a legitimate role in binding the nation together and safeguarding the long-term national interest. Anglo-Gaullism simply reasserts that insight for a modern Britain one that must be both economically dynamic and strategically resilient.

For too long, Modern British Conservatism has been trapped between two failed instincts.

On one side sits a hyper-libertarian reflex that treats the state as inherently illegitimate. This view cannot explain why Britain has some of the most expensive energy in the developed world or why our industrial base has thinned out over decades. Markets work best when they sit within a framework of national strategy not when they are left to drift.

On the other side sits a crude populism that promises the moon. Scandinavian welfare, American tax rates, and total border control without ever doing the arithmetic. It is a politics that sounds thrilling in a social media clip but collapses on contact with reality.

Anglo-Gaullism offers an exit. It accepts that the state has a legitimate role in defence, borders, infrastructure, and energy security but insists this role must serve the nation, not manage society or crowd out private enterprise.

In my career in British industry and coming from a military family, I have seen the damage a weak state causes.

A Strong State defends borders credibly, builds reservoirs, and secures energy. A Big State micromanages your lifestyle, centralises power in Whitehall, and regulates local pubs into closure. Modern Britain has managed to get the worst of both worlds: a state that is overbearing in the trivial but absent in the essential.

Infrastructure: It currently takes up to four years just to get planning consent for a major wind farm in the UK, even though construction might take half that time.

Energy: Despite being an island, we have faced higher price volatility than many European peers due to a lack of long-term strategic storage and diverse domestic generation.

Anglo-Gaullism draws a clear line between authority (which we need) and intrusion (which we don’t).

To understand Anglo-Gaullism, look at the two biggest drags on our economy:

Energy Security: For decades, we have treated energy as a spot-market commodity. An Anglo-Gaullist approach treats it as a pillar of national security. This means a state-led (but privately delivered) “Grand Design” for nuclear baseload and offshore wind, ensuring we are never again at the mercy of foreign dictators or volatile international markets.

Housing and Infrastructure: Our planning system is a monument to technocratic paralysis. Anglo-Gaullism would replace this “vetocracy” with a bias for action. If the nation needs homes and labs to prosper, the democratic mandate to build must override the bureaucratic layers that currently block progress. We should build with aesthetic pride creating the heritage of the future, not just the soulless boxes of a developer’s spreadsheet.

As a proud Conservative, I have zero interest in a politics of grievance. One of the most corrosive myths today is that patriotism is exclusionary.

Anglo-Gaullism is civic, not ethnic. It is rooted in shared citizenship, equal obligation, and national solidarity. It says: you belong, you contribute, and the nation protects you in return. This is how you rebuild trust in a country that feels frayed and fractured. Patriotism becomes a unifying force only when it is tied to responsibility and fairness not when it is reduced to performative outrage.

The Conservative Party must once again stand for something coherent: national strength without statism, markets with moral purpose, and authority rooted in democracy.

If we are serious about leading Britain, we must be serious about belief, not just tactics. Anglo-Gaullism is that belief, a Conservatism confident enough to govern, brave enough to choose, and strong enough to shape Britain’s future, rather than allow our great nation to drift into grey mediocracy and irrelevance.