Michael Oakeshott wrote:

To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect.

This, of course, is the precise opposite of what Ms May is offering.

http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2017/01/on-brexit-over-optimism.html 17^th Jan 2017