The triumph of the Conservatives in 1924 was the victory of a pragmatic conservatism which was to predominate in the party for the next forty years. It was not ‘right wing’ or ‘reactionary’ nor even ideological, except in the negative sense of being anti-socialist. Baldwin had pulled off the feat of making it the party of resistance to socialism, squeezing the Liberals almost to extinction in the process. He realised that he had picked up the votes of many who had formerly voted Liberal, and did not want to alienate their support. He was convinced that he owed his majority in the Commons to his party's ‘creating an impression throughout the country that we stood for stable government and for peace in the country between all classes of the community’.

Stanley Baldwin epitomised this conservatism based on class reconciliation rather than conflict. So far was he from being the class warrior some historians have made of him that he said of trades unions and employers' federations, ‘The only progress that can be obtained in this country is by these two bodies of men… learning to understand each other and not to fight each other.’ This conviction was instinctive rather than intellectual, for the prime minister was no deep thinker, but he instinctively felt what the average Conservative voter was thinking. He exploited this insight in the radio broadcasts he made and his appearances in cinema newsreels.