Conservative Party, the

the Conservative PartyConˈservative ˌParty, the

also the Conservatives, the Tory Party, and the Tories. One of the three main political parties in the UK. The Conservative Party has right-wing principles, and strongly supports the idea of free enterprise (=an economic system in which private companies compete against each other to make profits, and there is not much government control of economic activity). The Conservative Party was especially powerful during the period from 1979 to 1997, when it established a programme of privatization (=selling state-owned services such as electricity, gas, and the telephone service, so that they became private companies) and made new laws that limited the rights of workers and their trade unions.

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