On October 20th 2015 the Danube Insitute staged the first in a series of lectures on conservatism. It was delivered by Tim Montgomerie, a columnist on The (London) Times and founder of ConservativeHome, a website which he set up in 2005 to champion the interests of grassroots members of the British Conservative Party.

Mr Montgomerie’s book, „The Good Right: The moral power of conservatism” has just been published in Britain. In his lecture, he argued that the foundational beliefs of conservatism - free trade, individual creativity and strong families - have underpinned the greatest reduction in poverty that the world has ever seen. Over the last two decades 120,000 people have been lifted out of absolute poverty every day on average, but most people think hunger and malnutrition is getting worse. Friends of free enterprise need to make a better moral case for the beliefs that we hold dear, but must also look to tackle the problems that globalisation has caused for the environment, for the low-waged, and for national identity. That means a greater emphasis on extending ownership, investing in high-technology skills, and supporting traditional institutions like the family.