During the 1980s, members of the moderate wing of the British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

who opposed some of the more hard-line policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were often referred to by their opponents as "wets". Thatcher coined the usage in 1979–80, with the meaning of feeble, lacking hardness, or willing to compromise with the unions. The label was especially applied to senior members of her government who were nevertheless outside Thatcher's inner circle and who expressed opposition to her strict

monetarist Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on national ...

policies designed to tackle inflation, and her cuts to public spending.

Etymology

In British slang, "wet" meant "inept, ineffectual, effete". Within the political context, the term was used by Thatcher's supporters as both as a noun and as an adjective to characterise people or policies which Thatcher would have considered weak or "wet".

History

United Kingdom

Hugo Young Hugo John Smelter Young (13 October 1938 – 22 September 2003) was a British journalist and columnist and senior political commentator at ''The Guardian''. Early life and education Born in Sheffield into an old recusant Roman Catholic family, h ...

identifies the most important "inner" wets as Jim Prior, Peter Walker, and Sir Ian Gilmour, as well as

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...

and

Norman St John-Stevas Norman Antony Francis St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley, ( ; born Norman Panayea St John Stevas; 18 May 1929 – 2 March 2012) was a British Conservative politician, author and barrister. He served as Leader of the House of Commons in th ...

. The "outer" wets were more fragmented and less visible. They included Francis Pym, Michael Heseltine and Lord Hailsham. Gilmour was the most outspoken, delivering a lecture at Cambridge in February 1980 where he argued: "In the Conservative view, economic liberalism à la Professor Hayek, because of its starkness and its failure to create a sense of community, is not a safeguard of political freedom but a threat to it." In the 1980s Nick's Diner was started. Named in honour of Nicholas Scott, at the time a rising star of the anti-Thatcher wing of the Party, it served as a convivial meeting ground for wet MPs. In retaliation to being labelled as "wet", Thatcher's opponents within the party began referring to her supporters as the "dries". Policies which came to be labelled as "dry" included foremostly reducing public spending, cutting taxes, raising interest rates, tightly controlling the money supply, and reducing the regulatory power of the state – all policies which were closely associated with Thatcher. Outside of the Parliamentary Conservative Party, the youth sections of the Party saw increasingly bitter factional battles between "wets" and "dries". The Young Conservatives wing of the party remained in the hands of a strong "wet" and One Nation ( Tory Reform Group) faction until 1989, whilst the

Federation of Conservative Students The Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) was the student organisation of the British Conservative Party from the late 1940s to 1986. It was created to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party. It produced sever ...

remained in the hands of an alliance of libertarian and Monday Club supporters.

Australia

A similar factional identification exists in the Liberal Party of Australia, which is also a centre-right party like the Tories, and also has similar splits, but in terms of social policy between right-wing social conservatives and

socially progressive Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...

Liberals.

Notable parliamentary members

Wets

Anthony Barber Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber, (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1970 to 1974. After serving in both the Territorial Army and the Royal A ...

* Kenneth Clarke * Stephen Dorrell * Sir Ian Gilmour * Alan Haselhurst * Edward Heath * Michael Heseltine * David Hunt * Douglas Hurd * David Knox *

Sir Anthony Meyer Sir Anthony John Charles Meyer, 3rd Baronet (27 October 1920 – 24 December 2004) was a British soldier, diplomat, and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative and later Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician, best known for standing ...

* Jim Prior * Francis Pym * Nicholas Scott *

Fred Silvester Frederick John Silvester (born 20 September 1933) is a retired British Conservative Party politician. Silvester contested the Walthamstow West parliamentary constituency in 1966; he was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) at the Walthamstow ...

* Peter Walker *

Sir George Young George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham, (born 16 July 1941), known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet, from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, h ...

Dries

* John Biffen * Leon Brittan * Michael Brown * Rhodes Boyson * Michael Forsyth *

Ian Gow Ian Reginald Edward Gow (; 11 February 1937 – 30 July 1990) was a British politician and solicitor. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Eastbourne from 1974 until his assassination by the ...

* Neil Hamilton *

Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

* Gerald Howarth * Geoffrey Howe *

Keith Joseph Keith Sinjohn Joseph, Baron Joseph, (17 January 1918 – 10 December 1994), known as Sir Keith Joseph, 2nd Baronet, for most of his political life, was a British politician, intellectual and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party, he ...

* Nigel Lawson * Peter Lilley *

John Nott Sir John William Frederic Nott (born 1 February 1932) is a former British Conservative Party politician. He was a senior politician of the late 1970s and early 1980s, playing a prominent role as Secretary of State for Defence during the 1982 in ...

* Cecil Parkinson * Michael Portillo * John Redwood * Nicholas Ridley *

Norman Tebbit Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit (born 29 March 1931) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trad ...

* Margaret Thatcher