Provocateur
Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton is the most distinguished living political philosopher. yet that seriously understates his achievements. He written 50 books ranging from art and music to cookery, plus several novels. One of his most recent works, The Ring of Truth, about Wagner, received an awed reception. But Roger has also been a spirited controversialist, never afraid to take his arguments from the seminar room to the political front-line. In the 1980s, he did a great deal to bring aid and comfort to embattled dissidents in Eastern Europe.

He has also displayed his courage in the hunting field. He did not take up that sport until he was in his forties, but there was an auspicious beginning. In the great chain of hunting beings, Enoch Powell was retiring just as Roger followed his first view halloo. The novice bought Enoch's hunting kit.

Sir Roger is a Fellow of the British Academy and an honorary Bencher of Inner Temple, as well as a Knight Bachelor. High honours: higher deserts. We will try to entice him into writing frequent pieces for Provocateur.

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Politics

How to be a Conservative in 2017

When I first became conscious of my own political leanings, conservatism defined itself in terms of the worldwide confrontation between freedom and totalitarianism. Of course there were nuances, disputes and alliances. Traditional conservatives and free-market libertarians were often at loggerheads, and there was and remains a deep dispute on the conservative side as to whether the sphere of culture is or is not a concern of government. Still, it was undeniable to anyone who had experience of both sides that this worldwide conflict existed, and that conservatism ended with the defence of free societies against the totalitarian project, even if it did not begin there. Seeing things that way had the advantage of presenting conservatism as an international cause, something grander and more intimately connected with the future of mankind than the local attachments from which ordinary conservative sentiments tend to grow.

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