When British supermarket giant Tesco pulled out of the US in 2013, just six years after opening its first Fresh & Easy store, it was criticized for failing to understand important differences in the way Americans and Brits shop at grocery stores.
Similar charges could be made against the National Conservative Movement in the United States, based on evidence from last week. At their flagship meeting in London, where US speakers included Republican Senator JD Vance and leading British Conservative politicians, there was more buzz of excitement than eye rolls among attendees.critic IIncludes UK centre-right figures, writing in right-wing publications. How did the organizers misjudge their target market so badly?
Their first mistake was failing to fully appreciate how radical the Republican Party had become on social issues in the US and how moderate the Conservative Party had become in the UK. From immigration and racism to whether to defend tradition or embrace change, UK Conservatives are actually closer to US Democrats than Republicans.
“Britain is a Christian country, or nothing,” said a speaker at the meeting. This is news to most British Conservatives, with only 24% saying being a Christian is important to being truly British, compared to 25% of US Democrats and 53% of Republicans. Being an American raises the same question.
Such disparate social attitudes did not exist in a vacuum—they were shaped by disparate histories and reflected in disparate realities. America fought a civil war over slavery, segregation was legal for as long as people can remember, and the Ku Klux Klan still exists. Today, America is far more segregated than Britain, which itself is far from perfect when it comes to race.
Black Americans earn 22% less per hour than whites. This compares to a wage deficit of 6% for blacks in the UK. Even more strikingly, while American blacks live four years less than whites, British blacks live longer than their white compatriots.
Another key difference is the media environment. The US is highly fragmented, with no single news provider used by more than 25% of the population. Fox News and CNN have the most influence, but both are deeply distrusted by one side of the political divide. In the UK, by contrast, almost 60% of people regularly read the BBC’s news, and supporters of the Labor and Conservative parties generally trust its output. Polarizing British brands – the tabloids and the right-wing TV channel GB News – are far less influential than the likes of Fox and CNN.
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Culture war rhetoric thrives where there is a history of internal conflict, no common source of truth, and no challenge to radical views. The failure of last week’s meeting to strike a chord should send a clear message to transatlantic culture warriors that US and UK weaknesses are not always the same.
john.burn-murdoch@ft.com, @jburnmurdoch