Conservative Party

PARIS — France's conservative opposition has exploded in a divisive and invective-laden struggle — disenchanted commentators have called it a "vaudeville act" — over who will replace former president Nicolas Sarkozy as the standard-bearer of right-wing forces arrayed against the ruling Socialists. The contested leadership election, more than a week old and mired in dispute, has been particularly bitter because it will determine not only who leads the party in the post-Sarkozy era but...

Three years ago, newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron was seen as a possible model for Republicans here looking to update their party after losing the 2008 presidential election. Today, he provides an object lesson in the stumbling blocks that can lie in wait. Cameron, the Conservative Party leader , is a student of the public relations aspect of politics. He ran in 2010 as a modernizer, promising generational change and a more open and tolerant party. He presented himself as a moderate counterpoint to a succession of more...

PARIS — Former prime minister François Fillon, outraged at losing a chaotic internal leadership vote marred by cheating, threatened Tuesday to split off from France's main conservative party and take his followers into a separate parliamentary group. Fillon said the breakaway faction could return to the mother party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), if a new leadership election were held within three months to eliminate doubts as to who would assume former president Nicolas Sarkozy's mantle as head of the...

Republicans weighing a shift to the center ahead of the next presidential race will find a cautionary tale on this side of the Atlantic, where British Prime Minister David Cameron is paying the price for his foray outside of strictly conservative territory. Cameron strode into No. 10 Downing Street three years ago with a platform that included die-hard conservative values such as slashing the deficit and shrinking big government. But casting himself as a new breed of conservative that could appeal to Britons of every...

The word "abortion" does not appear in a Republican Party platform until 1976, when the party concedes that it is deeply split between those who support "abortion on demand" and those who seek to protect the lives of the unborn. The quest for lower taxes does not define Republicanism until the 1980s, and matters of faith play almost no role in the GOP's plank until the 1990s. The Republican Party, viewed through its quadrennial platform documents, is consistently business-oriented and...

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter whose overpowering personality, bruising political style and free-market views transformed Britain and transfixed America through the 1980s, died Monday after a stroke, her spokesman said in a statement. She was 87. The first woman to lead a major Western power, Mrs. Thatcher served 11 1 / 2 uninterrupted years in office before stepping down Nov. 28, 1990, making her the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th...

Virginia Republicans will gather in Richmond this weekend at a convention dominated by conservatives even as fresh evidence shows them increasingly at odds with most voters in the commonwealth when it comes to key issues such as gay marriage, gun rights and immigration policy. A new Washington Post poll shows stark challenges for both parties in the midst of a crucial gubernatorial race between Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and businessman Terry McAuliffe (D)

Republicans weighing a shift to the center ahead of the next presidential race will find a cautionary tale on this side of the Atlantic, where British Prime Minister David Cameron is paying the price for his foray outside of strictly conservative territory. Cameron strode into No. 10 Downing Street three years ago with a platform that included die-hard conservative values such as slashing the deficit and shrinking big government. But casting himself as a new breed of...

They lose and immediately the chorus begins . Republicans must change or die. A rump party of white America, it must adapt to evolving demographics or forever be the minority. The only part of this that is even partially true regards Hispanics. They should be a natural Republican constituency: striving immigrant community, religious, Catholic, family-oriented and socially conservative (on abortion, for example). The principal reason they go Democratic is the issue of illegal immigrants.

When I met Margaret Thatcher , she was out of office, watching with more than a touch of amusement as her successor, John Major, meandered from crisis to disappointment to sticky wicket. Major seemed in thrall to events, not in command of them. Thatcher, who had been ousted by her own Conservative Party, was feeling vindicated. She leaned close to deliver a final verdict on Major: "If only he were a man . " Thatcher was a towering but polarizing figure. Many aspects of her legacy — the...

Virginia Republicans will gather in Richmond this weekend at a convention dominated by conservatives even as fresh evidence shows them increasingly at odds with most voters in the commonwealth when it comes to key issues such as gay marriage, gun rights and immigration policy. A new Washington Post poll shows stark challenges for both parties in the midst of a crucial gubernatorial race between Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and businessman Terry McAuliffe (D)

BRITAIN Cameron capitulates to party on E.U. vote Prime Minister David Cameron faced questions about his leadership Tuesday after he bowed to pressure from within the Conservative Party to bring forward draft legislation enforcing a referendum on Britain's European Union membership. Just hours after President Obama cautioned against rushing toward the E.U. exit, Cameron — who was in Washington on Tuesday — was forced by a rebellion in his party into promising a bill that would clear the...

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter whose overpowering personality, bruising political style and free-market views transformed Britain and transfixed America through the 1980s, died Monday in London after a stroke, her spokesman said in a statement. She was 87. The first woman to lead a major Western power, Mrs. Thatcher served 11 1 / 2 uninterrupted years in office before stepping down on Nov. 28, 1990, making her the longest-serving...

When I met Margaret Thatcher , she was out of office, watching with more than a touch of amusement as her successor, John Major, meandered from crisis to disappointment to sticky wicket. Major seemed in thrall to events, not in command of them. Thatcher, who had been ousted by her own Conservative Party, was feeling vindicated. She leaned close to deliver a final verdict on Major: "If only he were a man . " Thatcher was a towering but polarizing figure. Many aspects of her legacy — the transformation of...

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter whose overpowering personality, bruising political style and free-market views transformed Britain and transfixed America through the 1980s, died Monday after a stroke, her spokesman said in a statement. She was 87. The first woman to lead a major Western power, Mrs. Thatcher served 11 1 / 2 uninterrupted years in office before stepping down Nov. 28, 1990, making her the longest-serving British prime minister of the...

RICHMOND — Bill Bolling is on a sunny island in the Bahamas, ignoring his e-mail most of the day and enjoying the beach with the bliss of someone who's just shed 45 pounds. But he is not fully in vacation mode. The Republican lieutenant governor and his wife have gone away for a week — far from the Richmond political swirl — to decide whether to turn his political identity and the Virginia governor's race upside down. On Thursday, two days after Bolling returns to the...

RICHMOND — Virginia's outspoken attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II, received a significant boost Friday in his battle to secure the Republican nomination for governor when the state GOP's governing board voted to hold a convention, instead of a primary election, to pick its candidate next year. Cuccinelli is expected to fare far better among conservative party stalwarts who will attend the convention than his rival for the nomination, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who most likely...

SEOUL — President Lee Myung-bak's ruling party emerged Thursday from a tight electoral race with a tenuous majority in parliament, avoiding a political setback just eight months before a presidential vote. With all 300 National Assembly seats up for grabs in the quadrennial race Wednesday, the ruling conservative Saenuri Party — predicted just weeks ago as headed for defeat — was expected to win 152 seats, enough to prevent a split legislature. The opposition Democratic United Party...

PARIS — Former prime minister François Fillon, outraged at losing a chaotic internal leadership vote marred by cheating, threatened Tuesday to split off from France's main conservative party and take his followers into a separate parliamentary group. Fillon said the breakaway faction could return to the mother party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), if a new leadership election were held within three months to eliminate doubts as to who would assume former president Nicolas Sarkozy's mantle as head of the...

PARIS — France's conservative opposition has exploded in a divisive and invective-laden struggle — disenchanted commentators have called it a "vaudeville act" — over who will replace former president Nicolas Sarkozy as the standard-bearer of right-wing forces arrayed against the ruling Socialists. The contested leadership election, more than a week old and mired in dispute, has been particularly bitter because it will determine not only who leads the party in the...