My Roger Scruton Lecture, delivered at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford on Monday 24th October

Normally I do not write speeches. As this was a lecture, intended to last a full forty minutes, I thought I should write an actual text. The following is the script I prepared, though not exactly as delivered (especially the opening, which was a mess because I somehow lost the second and third pages and had to improvise) :

 

Before I begin, I must mention that the misleadingly philosophical title of this lecture - ���After Conservatism���- was devised only so that it could fit on a rather smal...