Abstract
The three preceding chapters have revealed how the Conservative leadership ensured the party rank and file at Westminster avoided making openly antagonistic statements about Germany in order to maintain the bi-partisan consensus on foreign policy.1 As a result, many of the public views of the Conservative Party towards Anglo-German relations were constrained by party discipline and constricted by tactical and political calculations. In this chapter, the main aim is to assess how credible this interpretation really is, by placing under detailed scrutiny the private and especially the public views of Conservative MPs and peers towards three important aspects of Anglo-German relations: the naval arms race, commercial rivalry and the conscription controversy. It will be revealed here that the now routine depiction of the Conservative Party as a bunch of Germanophobes fostering open hostility towards Germany is deeply misleading.
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