Foreign policy

For much of the twentieth century the Conservative party favoured close ties with the United States and similarly aligned nations such as Canada, Australia and Japan. The Conservatives have generally favoured a diverse range of international alliances, ranging from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Conservatives have proposed a Pan-African Free Trade Area.

David Cameron had sought to distance himself from former US President Bush and met with Barack Obama during his 2008 European tour. traditional links between the UK Conservatives and US Republicans, and between Labour and the Democrats.

Beyond relations with the United States, the Commonwealth and the EU, the Conservative Party has generally supported a pro free-trade foreign policy.

Defence policy

• Welfare

Improving the welfare of Britain's military service personnel is a priority for the Conservative Party. One of their main goals is to strengthen the ties between the armed forces and a future government. Some of their policy commitments at the next general election will be: to double the operational bonus for troops serving in Afghanistan; to fund higher education for children of those service personnel killed in action and; to properly resource and staff the NHS to deal optimally with the particular needs of the Armed Forces.

Mental health has always a been a very important issue for the Conservative Party, particularly when it comes to service personnel. The Party is committed to addressing issues of mental health before they arise with a mental health follow-up telephone service for veterans and personnel who have deployed on operations or to places in support of operations. It will be customer-service driven and at the convenience of the veteran.

• Afghanistan

Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Conservative party has supported the coalition military action in Afghanistan.

• Europe and NATO

The Conservative Party aims to build enhanced bilateral defence relations with key European partners and believes that it is in Britain's national interest to cooperate fully with all its European neighbours. The Conservatives see it as a priority to encourage all members of the European Union to do more in terms of a commitment to European security at home and abroad.

They believe that NATO, which has been the cornerstone of British security for the past 60 years, should continue to have primacy on all issues relating to Europe's defence.

• Nuclear Deterrent

A future Conservative Government will maintain Britain's continuous at sea, independent, submarine based strategic nuclear deterrent based on the Trident missile system.

Party factions One Nation Conservatives

One Nation Conservatism was the party's dominant ideology in the 20th century until the rise of Thatcherismю The name itself comes from a famous phrase of Benjamin Disraeli. The basis of One-Nation Conservatism is a belief in social cohesion, and maintain harmony between different interest groups, classes, and—more recently—different races or religions.