'A Christmas Carol' - a political analysis from Burke's Corner

Burke’s Corner offers a political deconstruction of ‘A Christmas Carol’, written in response to Michael Gove’s contention that Dickens’ ‘little Christmas book’ is a seasonal cliché. As a Tory, Gove should appreciate the tale as a reassertion of socially responsible conservative values, in the teeth of Scrooge’s classically liberal analysis. The piece avers,

“Dickens leaves us in no doubt that Ebenezer Scrooge stands in the tradition of the Whigs, Puritans and the Manchester School. His redemption comes when he overthrows his Whiggish, Puritanical thinking and embraces the old merry tradition of Christmas and the tory notion that he has obligations to others in society.”


Typically erudite stuff from Burke’s corner. The blog concludes,

“Rejecting both the libertarian and the statist creeds, A Christmas Carol gives a seasonal celebration of the tory values extolled by Kruger. Perhaps Michael Gove should cautiously await the striking of the clock on Christmas Eve ... just in case a ghostly visitation is required in order to convince him that A Christmas Carol is much more than "a seasonal cliché".”

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